Island County Fire District 3’s paid on-call firefighter program will end April 1, a victim of the economy.
The district’s three commissioners unanimously agreed to drop the program to make up a projected $90,000 budget shortfall.
“We’re tightening our belts, and trying to keep the district operating in the black,” board chairman Kenon Simmons said.
“It’s enjoyable to hire people, but it’s never fun to let them go,” he added.
Elimination of the program, which includes six part-time firefighters, will save an estimated $91,000 for the remainder of the year, Simmons said.
The board made the decision on the advice of Chief Dan Stout, who, after consultation with station captains and assistant chiefs, assured commissioners that there would be no drop in the level of service. Stout said the department’s volunteers are increasingly proficient.
“It was an experimental program to start with,” Stout said this week of the part-timers. “I’m not sure we need them as much as we did then.”
The change affects the six part-time firefighters who make from $14.79 and $16.30 an hour, depending on experience.
They work up to 40 hours in a two-week pay period and receive no benefits, said Paula Schuler, district financial manager.
Two of the part-timers have been with the program since it started.
The program began as a pilot project in January 2006 to provide some consistent support to the mostly-volunteer distirct’s few full-time employees.
The district’s projected budget this year is about $1.8 million, and it has already taken several hits.
Schuler said the district usually collects $100,000 annually from investments, “but we’ll be lucky to get $30,000 this year,” with interest rates for governments below 1 percent.
With revenues from new construction way down too, the district expects to collect $50,000 less than expected from property taxes, Schuler said.
Meanwhile, a state training grant of $10,000, which the district has received in previous years, has been cancelled for this year, “and probably won’t be back,” Stout said.
And the district may need $50,000 more than expected this year to cover an increase in volunteer activities and training.
“They played a role for a long time,” Stout said of the part-time paid firefighters. But with the increase in training and retention of volunteers, “I don’t think we’ll see any reduction in service,” he added.
The district has six full-time employees, six part-time firefighters and 87 volunteers. Volunteers have increasingly been covering the day shifts, Stout said.
Island County Fire District 3 covers about 66 miles from the south end of the island north to a mile beyond Honeymoon Bay Road. Its six stations serve about 16,000 people.
