Commissioners seek public input

Fire commissioners are asking the community to help them decide what kind of fire department Point Roberts needs, starting with the fire chief.

“I’d like to attract people to these meetings, especially with the issue of the new chief,” said newest fire commissioner Susan Brownrigg at the February 11 meeting of fire district #5 commissioners. With the exception of the All Point Bulletin there was no audience at the meeting. The crowds that filled the seats as the district pulled out of North Whatcom Fire and Rescue Services weren’t around to watch commissioners hire their own financial manager and a secretary to run the office, buy their own insurance, or negotiate new deals with granting agencies. Commissioners want to make sure they decide what kind of fire chief the Point needs with full public cooperation and support.

“Without having a sense of what people want I don’t see us making a decision and I would put a plea out to the community ­ tell us what you want,” said commissioner David Gellatly.

What the community doesn’t want is the kind of department described in the current strategic plan prepared under former chief Mike Campbell, which has a full-time chief and several paid firefighters providing continuous medical and fire coverage regardless of volunteer response. When former fire commissioners asked voters in November if they would approve a doubling of fire taxes to fund that kind of department 80 percent said no.

“If this is what the voters want, what can we afford?” Brownrigg asked. The $50,000 budgeted annually for a chief’s salary could not pay for former fire chief Nick Kiniski, who has stayed on as a volunteer until the department reorganizes, and is not likely to be able to pay a full-time chief.

Possibilities include a permanent part-time chief with volunteers taking up some command responsibilities, or a group of “volunteer chiefs” taking turns at the head of the department, or selling the Point as a place career firefighters can get command experience if they’ll accept a lower rate of pay for their stint here. “My thought is you really need some structure but I can understand new blood brings new energy and new direction,” Gellatly said.

The kind of command structure commissioners choose will need to reflect what the community wants from their fire department, and what they can reasonably expect to get at the current taxation rate. “We need to talk about what is different, how is it different and where are we going,”

Gellatly said. Gellatly also said community members needed to think about the Intermediate Life Support (ILS) program and the fast response vehicle, which is no longer manned continuously but left empty if a volunteer ILS emergency medical technician is not available.

Former chief Mike Cadden left the position because of the demands of being on call for the program at all times, and Kiniski also said a single paid chief and volunteers could not promise 24/7 coverage.

“Given the requirements of the ILS program it’s a significant commitment for an individual and to maintain it is very cumbersome,” Gellatly said. Commissioners had said at previous meetings that if community members wanted more resources to be put into emergency medical care they would need to come to commissioners with a proposal and the willingness to pay more in taxes to support it.

At their March 10 meeting Gellatly said discussing desired qualifications for a new fire chief will be the top item on the agenda and commissioners are hoping to see all the chairs filled. “I’d like to encourage some real, good conversation,” Gellatly said.

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