East County Fire and Rescue’s call volume has increased 52 percent in the last decade, putting a strain on the department’s budget.
To maintain the district’s level of service, East County Fire and Rescue representatives are considering turning to residents in November and asking for them to vote in favor of a levy lid lift, which would allow the department to increase the regular property levy in an amount greater than the 1 percent levy lid.
“Each year, the cost of doing business just keeps going up,” said Mike Carnes, deputy chief with East County Fire and Rescue. “It goes up higher than what our income is.”
Currently, the department’s levy rate is about $1.29 per $1,000 of assessed property value, which brings in $2,050,569 to the department. Carnes said the department could go up to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value if the levy lid lift is approved, which would add about $340,655 a year coming into the department.
“It’s to continue the same level of service,” Carnes said. “We would be using it to pay the bills we’re getting today. We’ve got some maintenance things that need to happen at one of the stations.”
East County covers about 60 square miles of rural land on the northern and eastern sides of Camas and Washougal.
The department has five fire stations, two of which offer 24-hour service, and nine full-time firefighters, three of whom are captains. There are also six part-time firefighters, and about 18 volunteers. Three volunteers are college interns currently going to school in the medical field or fire science field, who work side-by-side with firefighters on every shift.
Trying to keep up
East County Fire and Rescue Chief Nick Swinhart said call volume has increased as the county has grown, and property values are rising faster than the department’s levy rate can keep up. The increased call volume means added costs for personnel and equipment, which they are barely keeping up with at the moment.
Swinhart said the department needs to “keep up with the simple inflationary nature of the economy.”
To get a levy lid lift on the ballot for the Nov. 6 general election, the East County Fire and Rescue’s board of directors will have to vote for a resolution to put it up for a vote in the general election by Aug. 7, according to the Clark County Office of Elections.
Regardless of a possible levy lid-lift vote, department officials have also started discussing some future options that could see East County further its relationship with nearby Camas-Washougal Fire Department. The departments assist each other on mutual aid calls and train together, and Camas-Washougal provides ambulance response and transportation services in East County jurisdiction on emergency medical calls.
Swinhart is also the chief of both departments, having taken over as chief in East County about two years ago. He’s been chief of Camas-Washougal for seven years.
The two agencies are in very early talks, looking at a variety of options, including merging the two departments, a contract for service or options for the city of Camas to form its own fire district. Camas and Washougal’s fire departments merged in 2014 after a two-year trial merger.
Swinhart was in charge of the department during the trial merger.
“East County Fire and Rescue has a partnership with Camas-Washougal already, and if funding levels reach maximum, there’s still going to need to be ways to elevate levels of services, especially with the growth,” Swinhart said. “Partnerships with surrounding agencies is a way to keep that level of service. The two could partner more, either through a merger or other agreements. There’s no timeline for when something like that could happen.”
