Letter to the Editor: What does high level of fire dept. service cost Orcas Island?

Recently, I was privy to a meeting of citizens ruminating the large expenditures of our fire department. Their concern seemed to be that the department’s budget was far in excess of the rural level of service needed. They felt that bigger, better and more expensive equipment could never overcome the rural level of service that was based upon the topography of the Island, No matter how much you spent. it would never be possible to deliver the urban level of service described in the budget.

Further, they questioned the statement of the Commissioners at a recent meeting that the citizens of Orcas “demanded” this highest level of urban service. This they avowed was because the veritable “safety and health of every household and business in in the hands of the fire/medic department”. The group felt that the Commissioners were discounting the tremendous medical support the community gets from its doctors and clinic.

Someone brought up what they felt were excessive and unnecessary expenses, like memorial gardens, IPhone and sophisticated equipment, when more money  should be appropriated to the volunteers. Apparently there was a strategic study by a knowledgeable committee after the last levy and it recommended that the fire/medic needs could easily be met with less costly and sophisticated equipment. This study was dismissed by the commissioner and it is now necessary to fly a mechanic in from Las Vegas on a monthly basis to work on the equipment.

In summation, I guess I heard that the group wanted an effective and efficient fire department that lives within a budget appropriate for a rural level of service. They also wanted to get the word out to the community about the forthcoming election of fire commissioners and to make sure the public was circumspect in their voting for commissioners that were less extravagant with taxpayers money.

By Walt Corbin