The Yachats Rural Fire Protection District wants to start staffing its station seven miles up the Yachats River by early next year.
The small sub-station station at 7881 Yachats River Road was built in 2009 after voters in the area asked to be annexed to the fire district in 2003. But it has rarely been staffed.
The district has money for an additional firefighter/paramedic hire in its 2019-20 budget but has been busy moving into its new main station. Now that the move is under way and budget needs clearer, administrator Frankie Petrick wants to go ahead with staffing it either with a volunteer or a new hire.
“I really want to get it going, hopefully in January,” she said. “It’s a position we’ve had budgeted.”
The idea would be to staff the river station with one person around the clock while two firefighter/paramedics are in the main station along U.S. Highway 101.
The river station would have a mini-response unit, Petrick said.
The station has a kitchen and an area for sleeping, but Petrick said the district would have to remodel the space for a bedroom.