INSIDE

Chief warns against future needs

by Meg Olson

The Point Roberts fire department is considering following in the footsteps of other departments in the county, looking at what it would take to serve the community if all the developments now on the drawing board are built.

On April 23 fire chief Bill Skinner said he plans to attend a meeting hosted by North Whatcom Fire and Rescue Service (NWFRS) to present the results contained in a 273-page report on a study of how emergency services can keep up with explosive growth in the Birch Bay area. Consultants with Emergency Services Consulting are projecting the NWFRS workload will increase by a third when new developments in the area are occupied, and the report looks at how to fund needed facility and personnel changes to handle it.

Skinner said Point Roberts needs to start the same process, faced with three large proposed developments. “We are concerned with the possibility of rapid construction as water becomes available and how we will keep up with rising demand for service,” he said. “Most people moving here now are coming from metropolitan areas and their expectations are high.”

The possibility of a building higher than two stories, such as a multi-storey hotel at the marina, is also a concern, Skinner said. “We don’t have a ladder truck, we don’t have a building large enough to put a ladder truck in and we don’t have personnel with the special training required to use it,” Skinner said.

The department currently has 22 volunteer members and a paid part-time administrator, assistant administrator, and clerk. In 2007 the department responded to 125 calls, more than half being emergency medical calls, and the rest ranging from false alarms to fires. In 2008 the department will collect $233,600 in taxes, collecting 46 cents per thousand dollars of assessed valuation from local property owners.
“We’re going to have to look at our tax rate, which right now is the lowest in the county,” Skinner said. “It’s adequate to maintain volunteer staffing. It’s not adequate to put money away for long-term capital improvements or paid staff. For paid staff it would have to go up dramatically, it would basically double.”

Skinner said he hopes they can begin an analysis similar to the one commissioned by NWFRS to help chart the department’s future. “It’s a challenge the community and commissioners seriously need to look at,” he said. “What are their expectations and how will we fund it?”