At the Board of Fire Commissioners meeting on Aug. 12, commissioners approved the purchase of five fire engines, proceeded with Deer Harbor Fire Station plans, reviewed administrative structure at neighboring fire departments, heard comments from the Fire Department’s Volunteer Association and changed the wording of the District Organizational Policy.

The commissioners voted unanimously to approve the Apparatus Committee’s recommendation to purchase four engines and a rescue truck for the Orcas Island Fire Department as part of an inter-local bid already initiated by Skagit County Fire District No. 5.

In reviewing the recommendation, Captain Rick Anda, who heads the Apparatus Committee, explained, “The expected life of an engine is 20 years and we have one that is coming up on its 30th anniversary. Our rescue truck was purchased in 1970. It is worn out and needs to be replaced. As part of our investigation, we looked into downsizing some of the vehicles to what are called Mini Pumpers for easier maneuverability. Statistically, more firefighters are injured in driving accidents than from fires. We have been managing the budget since the bond levy very well and have the money to do this.”

Orcas Island Fire Department Chief Mike Harris explained that the decision to upgrade was part of the 1999 Fire District levy (of $1.35 tax assessed per $1,000 property valuation) that charged him with restructuring the areas of fire, emergency medical services and communications. The Strategic Planning Committees recommended these changes in 2005.

The department had already decided that the Darley Vision Series Initial Attack Engines would be built onto Ford F-550 chassis. Harris said that the plan called for “nimble off-road-capable multitask vehicles with compressed air foam (CAF).” He noted that the new vehicles will have four-wheel drive, better ground clearance and automatic transmissions. The recommendation of the Apparatus Committee is that one of each of the vehicles be assigned to the stations at Deer Harbor, Doe Bay, West Sound and Obstruction Pass for a total of two on each side of the island.

Harris said, “The chassis won’t be done before the end of January. Our plan is to look at the first one and then pull the trigger on the other three.”

The Orcas Fire Department is able to purchase the engines at the same baseline bid price as Skagit County Fire District No. 5, and before a five percent price increase takes effect, due to an inter-local agreement written into the bid specifications. Skagit’s cost for each engine is $215,000 plus tax. Orcas Fire Department will pay the same price, unless it changes any of the specifications. The chief and the manufacturer have not yet met to discuss Orcas Island’s needs and any subsequent price adjustments.

With regard to the Fire/Medic Contract and Division Chief Proposal, Chief Harris reviewed his research into the pay and working structure of several other fire departments, including San Juan, Lopez, Anacortes and Skagit. He said, “The neighborhoods are extremely varied and hard to compare with that on Orcas. The San Juan Island structure is completely different from ours. Their EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) respond from home and work one week on and one week off. Our medics make $21.19 an hour. Their medics make $17.95 an hour. Theirs have very few administrative responsibilities. They can live anywhere they want and have three minutes to respond to a call.

“As reviewed in our Executive Session, two of our medics work off-island part time at Skagit County Medic No. 1. They make $30 an hour without benefits, which is comparable to $28 with benefits.”

Harris went on to review Lopez fire department’s one-week-on and one-week-off at $14.39 an hour arrangement.

He said Anacortes worked a more “fire traditional” schedule with 100 percent of the time in the agency facility compensated at $28.96 per hour. Camano Island’s EMTs make $24.80 per hour.

Harris said that he had prepared a spreadsheet of all the different variables, hourly wages and pros and cons that could be further reviewed. “My request is that we have another work session on the issue. I don’t feel an urgency to make a decision on this until we have more information. This is just a review of the surrounding neighborhoods. What we don’t have is a comparison to a situation that is like ours on Orcas as far as age of population, lack of medical facilities, etc.” He said that he would have the next spreadsheet of information available for the commissioners by Thursday, Aug 14.

David Mowrey, a member of the Orcas Island Volunteer Firefighter/EMT Association, read a letter addressed to the Orcas Fire Commission during the public comment period that recapped a special meeting of the volunteer association held on Aug. 6 to discuss the union Fire/Medics’ proposal to break out the Assistant Fire Chief duties into three divisions. Noting that not all members were present, Mowrey said that those in attendance agreed with the points expressed in the letter.

“In principle we support the proposal, we trust the skill, knowledge and ethics of the current fire medics,” he read. The letter outlined the volunteers’ concerns in regards to budget neutrality in cost, division of labor being appropriate for future leadership models and the workability of the structure under a future chief. Other questions of concern listed: what was the “Plan B” if an agreement could not be reached; and would there be sufficient funds after the current levy ended in 2014?

The volunteers’ statement also questioned if there would be enough support personnel in the district office to allow the fire medics to do the proposed job, “or would their time be taken up answering phones, cleaning the station, washing dishes, and mowing the lawn?” The letter ended by encouraging the commissioners to continue the process.

In further business, Chief Harris reviewed the status of the Deer Harbor station in regards to the tenant, septic design approval, design modifications, water system and boundary line adjustment. The commissioners unanimously approved his requests to surplus the mobile home and formally terminate the lease agreement of the tenant Karla Rieg as of Sept. 30 and to accept a 688-square-foot boundary line variance from conflicting survey reports in favor of the neighboring property belonging to Cliff Thompson. Harris said that the discrepancy would not interfere with the station design or the effective usage of the property by the fire department.

The commissioners also voted unanimously to change the wording and intent of the District Organization Policy to bring it in line with how the policy is currently implemented. The wording change states that the “chief selects and promotes all other officers,” instead of the appointment of officers being voted upon by the firemen. Harris said, “We have some officer vacancies and we have need of an officer in the rescue division. The old policy has not been adhered to for some time and this just cleans up the wording to make it correspond to how things are actually handled. This is part of our ongoing effort to revise policies that are old and extinct.”

The commission unanimously approved two pension issues brought by the Board of the Volunteer Firefighters. The first was to refund the pension fees of $62 to the widow of a retired firefighter and the second was to allow Bruce Brackett, a recently retired firefighter, to receive his pension.

The next public meeting of the Orcas Island Fire District Commissioners will be a work session on Aug. 26 at 7:30 p.m. in the Eastsound Fire Hall. The Division Chief Proposal and the Deer Harbor Fire Station will be on the agenda. Call 376-2331 for further information.