YACHATS – Eligible employees of the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District will get a 6 percent cost-of-living raise this month.
The fire district board voted 3-0 to approve the raise during its monthly meeting Monday. Board chair Katherine Guenther and member Betty Johnston were absent.
The cost of living increase was designed to help keep firefighters close to the increase in inflation the past year. The yearly, national inflation rate was 6.8 percent in December.
“We’ve got to pay these firefighters,” said board member Drew Tracy in proposing the 6 percent increase. “We have to be competitive with pay and retain them.”
The raises are expected to cost the district $20,000 and will be given this month to six firefighters, assistant district administrator Shelby Knife and a part-time office assistant.
The district currently is budgeted for six firefighter/paramedics or firefighter/EMTs. Firefighter/EMT Tim O’Neill retired this week after 20 years and the district is paying retirees or firefighters from other departments to fill shifts until a new firefighter/EMT is hired. In addition to O’Neill, the district has lost two other longtime firefighters, Tony Hamilton and Eric Swafford, to retirement or a new jobs in the past year.
Yachats – and most districts or agencies across Oregon – are also facing a big demand for firefighters with paramedic or EMT credentials from others across the state, most of whom are actively recruiting and offering signup bonuses when they can.
Board member Ed Hallahan suggested that the board review the cost-of-living in six months to determine if it needs to make a mid-year adjustment as well. Tracy and board member Donald Tucker agreed.
In other business the board:
- Added a second monthly meeting on the fourth Monday of the month as it races by a late February deadline to determine what to do about a failed levy request and the size of a proposal to put on the May ballot.
- Heard reports from district administrators on the district’s new Facebook page and redesign of the district’s website.
- Discussed how to better break out the number, type and length of responses by fire district equipment and the private, nonprofit South Lincoln Ambulance, which is staffed by district firefighters. Tracy and Tucker are interested in determining how much time district firefighters are spending on ambulance calls. South Lincoln Ambulance is overseen by district administrator Frankie Petrick, Knife and three others but is housed at and staffed by Yachats firefighters.