I will be voting to increase my taxes. Full disclosure, I am and have been a volunteer with Orcas Island Fire and Rescue for about 10 years since I moved to Orcas with my family. I was recruited by Chief Kevin O’Brien.

To improve the reliability and timeliness of our department’s responsiveness, Chief O’Brien initially pursued an austere strategy. That strategy would have significantly increased the burden on our volunteers by requiring in-station shifts and dedicated on-duty periods. It was too much to ask and the alternative was to increase professional staffing by adding career firefighter/EMTs positions. The consensus assessment at the time was that the increasing call volume, overlapping calls and island limitations required this operational prioritization. Those considerations remain true today, perhaps even more so.

While not immediately apparent, this decision was made knowing there would be a necessary offset in reduced funding for facility maintenance, vehicle maintenance and replacement, benefits and stipends for volunteers, as well as training for volunteers and career staff (including efforts to attract new volunteers).

This is anecdotally robbing Peter to pay Paul and not sustainable indefinitely. Without a substantial funding increase (such as the proposed Lid lift) the department will have to reallocate resources and that will likely mean eliminating operational staff to keep pace with other demands and even that won’t rectify the backlog of deferred maintenance and replacement.

The department and commission have rigorously analyzed their long-term needs to sustain the service they provide at the current level of performance and that is available for review in significant detail at https://www.orcasfire.org/levy-information/.

If you have more questions, I’d love to talk with you, but please also contact the incumbent commissioners or acting chief Holly VanSchiak. Their ability to “campaign” is limited but I’m confident they would be happy to discuss with you.

Tony Simpson

Orcas Island