CAMAS — Camas-Washougal Fire Chief Nick Swinhart would also take command of East County Fire & Rescue under an agreement in the works between the city and fire agency.
The Camas City Council and East County Fire & Rescue commissioners had a workshop Monday night to discuss the agreement, in which the city would provide administrative and management services to ECF&R by contracting for part of Swinhart’s time on a monthly limited basis.
East County Fire & Rescue responds to fires and emergencies in the unincorporated areas beyond the Camas and Washougal city limits, while the Camas-Washougal Fire Department serves both cities with fire, emergency medical and ambulance services. The two agencies have talked previously about shared services, or even merging, but there were always roadblocks, said Camas Councilor Greg Anderson, who has been on the council since 1997 and has taken part in many of those discussions.
“This has been a very curvy straight road,” he said. “We knew where we wanted to go, but we had to go through the hills and valleys to get there.”
The agreement calls for Swinhart to work with East County Fire & Rescue for 37.5 hours a month, and ECF&R will promote a current employee to deputy chief to oversee more of the day-to-day running of the department. Swinhart’s time each month will be used for coordinating with the deputy chief, Station 91 on-site hours, emergency response, attending commission meetings, officers meetings and miscellaneous duties, according to the agreement.
For Swinhart’s services, East County Fire & Rescue will pay Camas $3,000 a month. The amount of hours Swinhart works with ECF&R isn’t limited to 37.5 hours, Anderson said, but the contract is at a fixed rate, so it will be for $3,000 a month unless one side goes to the other to change it.
The agreement, should both sides vote for it, is for a one-year trial period. The fire district commissioners are going to discuss the agreement and vote on it at one of their meetings. Because it’s an interlocal agreement, the city council needs to host a public hearing on the topic. The hearing is scheduled for the council’s Oct. 17 meeting, after which the council will also vote on the agreement, Camas City Administrator Peter Capell said.
At Tuesday’s workshop, there wasn’t much discussion from either side, leading Camas Mayor Scott Higgins and East County Fire & Rescue Interim Chief Al Gillespie to say they think both parties will vote in favor.
“If we could have this thing wrapped up by the end of October and ready to start Nov. 1, we’re ready to go,” Gillespie said.
Higgins said the agreement has been coming for a while.
“It is not a new subject. It’s a subject that we as a community have known,” he said. “The district is changing. The city is changing. They’re getting closer and closer together. That makes all of our jobs a little more complicated the less close that we work together, and it makes our jobs a lot easier the more closely we work together.”
Councilor Steve Hogan asked how the two departments will work together, and Swinhart said he’s the only one whose responsibilities are changing.
“This proposal in no way involves commingling of the various personnel from both agencies any more than they currently are,” Swinhart said.
Gillespie said that’s one reason the agreement can work between the two sides.
“They are more alike than they are different because they are first responders,” he said. “They do have their own individual cultures, but they are much more closely aligned than you can imagine. They do respond together and train together already on a regular basis. While they won’t be living in the same house, they already are very closely related to each other.”
