All Point Bulletin, Newspaper of Point Roberts, Washington and Delta, British Columbia

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Fire district to determine Car 510 funding

By Meg Olson

When they meet in October Point Roberts fire commissioners will decide whether or not to reauthorize additional payments for volunteers that man the department’s quick response vehicle, a strategy that the numbers say has brought the vehicle closer to providing the intended 24/7 emergency medical service for the Point.

Car 510 was purchased through a donation from the volunteer fireman’s bingo corporation in 2000 as a tool to shorten response times to emergencies by having a volunteer or paid firefighter trained in emergency medicine on call in the vehicle around the clock. Through the program the department got response times down to under five minutes. It was manned around the clock until last July, when former fire chief Nick Kiniski told commissioners that despite having 12 volunteers trained to take the vehicle, most of the hours were falling to him. “It’s too much,” he said.

Kiniski continued to put in dozens of hours outside his normal work times and the vehicle continued to be manned 80 percent of the time until January, when fire district five split with North Whatcom Fire and Rescue Services, and Kiniski’s paid position was terminated. While he remained on as volunteer chief, he stopped taking car 510. From February to June, despite long hours put in by volunteer John Shields, the number of hours per month the vehicle was manned slipped down to 294 – 40 percent of the time.

At their June 9 meeting commissioners voted to increase the stipend for volunteers manning car 510 from $2 to $4 per hour for three months to see if it had an effect. In July the vehicle was manned 59 percent of hours and in August that number rose to 71 percent.

“I’m sure it does motivate,” said fire department deputy chief Bill Skinner, when asked if the extra money was the reason for the upswing in volunteer hours in car 510. “I’d say it probably is but no one’s said as much.”

Skinner said there were also more volunteers in the pool trained to man the vehicle who were taking regular shifts. “There’s kind of a core of five or six people,” he said. Twelve volunteers have the training needed.
Commissioners David Gellatly and Bill Meursing said they would like to discuss extending the stipend increase at their October 13 meeting. “My sense is if it’s working we want to continue making it work,” Gellatly said.

The fire district will also be interviewing candidates for a permanent fire chief in October. At a special meeting September 15 they set October 16 for a panel made up of two chiefs from other districts, two volunteer firefighters and two community members to meet with candidates and make a recommendation to commissioners. Doug Ritchie and Larry Crossetti, the only two community members to regularly attend fire commission meetings, were selected for the panel, while the other four panel members have not yet been chosen. Following the panel’s recommendation commissioners will interview and select a new chief. “We hope to have a decision that afternoon,” he said. Meursing reported that consultants now had two applications for the position and expected half a dozen more. “They will pre-screen and recommend two or three for interviews,” he said.