By Jason Kauffman and Jon Duval
Last in a three-part series exploring the complex question of whether fire departments in the southern Wood River Valley should merge, the resolution of which has eluded a succession of elected officials.
While many divergent views exist on just how fire protection in the southern Wood River Valley should be provided, no one disputes the necessity of cooperation. With volunteers making up the majority of the Hailey, Bellevue and Wood River fire departments, their interdependence is vital in order to provide a high level of fire protection to the citizens in the south valley.
For now, an agreement exists between the three departments to provide automatic aid for confirmed structure fires in each other's jurisdictions. However, as the populations of both Bellevue and Hailey continue to expand, this level of service will be more difficult and expensive to maintain. As concern grows among elected officials, fire department personnel and members of the public, calls for some form of consolidation have increased.
Underscoring the perceived need for change, the three-year automatic aid agreement between Hailey, Bellevue and Wood River is set for renewal in September, helping bring this controversial issue to the forefront once again.
Calls for consolidation pick up
One recent development in the south valley consolidation scene was an offer extended to Bellevue by Hailey Mayor Susan McBryant to negotiate greater cooperation between the two cities.
At a Bellevue City Council meeting on March 22, McBryant said Hailey officials wish to first work with Bellevue on fire protection before negotiating with the Wood River Fire and Rescue Department.
"The partner we want to partner with is Bellevue," McBryant said. "Rather than being pushed or pulled in different directions, our city decided to pursue its own interests."
Depending on how the talks go, she said the agreement could mean the consolidation of Hailey and Bellevue fire services.
"Either in whole or in part," McBryant said.
Consolidation makes sense because of the two cities' budgetary similarities, she explained.
Recalling a previous attempt to bring south valley fire departments together during discussions in 1998, McBryant gave her opinion for why they were unsuccessful.
"It was largely a territorial battle," she said.
During a recent interview, McBryant said partnering with Bellevue is viewed as an easier task for now.
"Let's bite off what we can chew," she said.
While saying she welcomes regional planning efforts currently under way in the Wood River Valley, McBryant said her loyalty must remain focused on Hailey. And this extends to regional fire services.
"I'm not thinking regionally, but thinking about what's best for the city of Hailey," McBryant said.
Underscoring McBryant's desire to see her city partner with Bellevue was a recent announcement by Bellevue Fire Chief Greg Beaver. At a Bellevue City Council meeting on May 10, Beaver submitted a petition signed by all of the firefighters in Hailey and Bellevue's fire departments supporting a merger between the two departments.
The city's firefighters believe joining the two departments would lead to fiscal efficiencies and would bring together two entities that have mutual respect for one another, Beaver said.
Bellevue and Wood River talks falter
While the Hailey and Bellevue fire departments seem intent on succeeding with their current round of consolidation negotiations, the lack of activity on combining Wood River with Hailey, Bellevue or both remains unabated.
The potential benefits of merging all three departments have been noted, but the means for achieving that goal are still uncertain.
This difficulty was highlighted by preliminary contract drafts exchanged between Bellevue and Wood River within the past six months.
Despite this attempt to bring the two departments together, there exists a clear difference in the basic means of doing so, which has created a certain amount of friction.
Bellevue Councilman Shaun Mahoney said a committee composed of firefighters and city officials spent approximately a year compiling information, eventually yielding a 17-page draft for a joint powers agreement that they delivered to Wood River at the end of last year.
City Administrator Tom Blanchard recognizes that Bellevue's strength is in its nine volunteers and their combined experience of more than 90 years of firefighting.
"We don't bring assets or property to the table." Blanchard said. "But we don't want a contract for service because Bellevue wants our own men."
For Bellevue, the cost of joining forces with Wood River would be relatively low. In the first year of joint operation, Bellevue proposed to transfer its $70,000 fire budget to Wood River, and would add another $20,000 to that amount every subsequent year for four years.
Included in their proposal was a stipulation for a volunteer assistant fire chief, whose role would be to resolve conflicts between the volunteer and professional firefighters.
Wood River, on the other hand, sees the beginning of a partnership taking another route and sent their own draft back to Bellevue in March, one that closely resembles the contract for services between the Ketchum and Ketchum Rural fire departments.
"It was felt ... that it would be in the best interests of both (Bellevue and Wood River) to start with a more simple arrangement which, if satisfactory to both, could eventually evolve to a joint powers agreement," wrote Wood River attorney Rand L. Peebles in the cover letter of the Wood River draft.
One reason Wood River is reluctant to immediately enter into a joint powers agreement with Bellevue is that these agreements typically are forged between entities of similar size, Wood River Fire Chief Bart Lassman said.
"What we were looking for in the beginning was a simple fire service contract," Lassman explained.
Commissioner weighs in
Wood River Fire Protection District Fire Commissioner Jay Bailet explained during a recent interview that he and his fellow commissioners are simply trying to do what's best for their constituents, but would be willing to take the departments a step closer than their current mutual aid agreement allows, despite potential financial ramifications for Wood River.
"We want to first show Bellevue what Wood River could offer, even if it's for a loss," Bailet said.
Regardless of how it's done, few can deny Bellevue's need to increase its level of fire protection service, especially with the city on the brink of major expansion.
In March, a citizens advisory committee recommended Bellevue voters approve a tax increase at a special election on May 22, partially to raise the fire department's funding. This committee found deficiencies in the lack of a full-time chief, the hourly wage for paid on-call volunteers and necessary equipment.
These concerns are not lost on those living outside of the south county.
Ron Anderson, the current chief of the Meridian Fire Department, is no stranger to the consolidation issue, having assisted with the consolidation of the Nampa and Nampa Rural fire departments.
Invited to the Wood River Valley last year to facilitate a meeting between Bellevue and Wood River, he immediately recognized possible efficiencies.
"I drove into Bellevue and passed (Wood River Station No. 3) and it didn't seem to make sense that it wasn't used by Bellevue," Anderson said in a recent phone interview. "I don't understand why Bellevue would look to build a new one."
In addition, he didn't give much weight to the argument against combining departments with such disparity in their numbers of full-time employees.
"I don't see the volunteer versus professionals as too big of an issue because Wood River is already a combination department with a majority of volunteers," Anderson said.
A Bellevue City Council meeting in April demonstrated both the tensions caused by the dissimilarity in the departments' desired level of cooperation and the desire of elected officials to keep moving forward.
"We were insulted that Wood River saw our contract draft only as a starting point," Mahoney said at the meeting. "But there's no hard feelings at all."
While Mahoney and Bailet both expressed interest in continuing the discussion between the fire district and city, this interest has yet to be turned into a reality, leaving the current situation unchanged and the future as big of a question mark as ever.
Options run the gamut
Among the most vocal proponents for consolidation in the south valley is Indian Creek resident Diane Barker. The vice chair of the Wood River/Sawtooth Regional EMS Association, Barker was actively engaged in the Woodside fire station bond debate in the run up before last November's election in Hailey. In that discussion, Barker was critical of the decision to proceed with construction on the proposed fire station without first coming up with some kind of long-range master plan for south valley emergency services.
A month after the failed bond election, Mayor McBryant invited Barker to a Dec. 11, 2006, meeting with Hailey officials to discuss alternative methods the city might consider for providing emergency services in the city.
Among the options laid out by Barker at the meeting was the possibility that Hailey could contract with another fire department for emergency fire and medical services.
As it was only an informal gathering, the public workshop ended without any decisions having been made. However, Hailey officials did commit to further discussion of the issue sometime in early 2007.
While the topic has come up in Hailey in the months since, no actual changes have yet been made.
So far, the closest thing resembling change in Hailey was McBryant's trip south to Bellevue to extend an offer to enter into negotiations.
Barker admits to having a difficult time understanding why Hailey isn't interested in exploring closer ties with Wood River. Although noting city leaders have declared it in their interest to work with Bellevue, Barker for one questions what, if anything, either side would gain from such a merger.
In Barker's opinion, closer ties with Wood River would provide a more obvious set of benefits for Hailey.
She even went so far as to organize a meeting between the key players in the south valley to discuss greater cooperation between them.
Invited to the March 15 informal session were representatives from Wood River, Hailey, Bellevue and the Wood River/Sawtooth Regional EMS Association, she said. Of those who were invited, only Hailey failed to send a delegate to represent the city's interests, Barker said.
As the jurisdiction with the largest population and, therefore, the greatest needs in terms of emergency services, the city's decision to not show up and talk with others was frustrating, Barker said.
"They won't come to the meetings I set up. They won't talk to Wood River," she said. "Hailey really is trying to go it alone, and I don't understand."
What are the options?
Among what she has come up with while researching the issue is a range of possible scenarios for how Hailey might provide fire services in the future. The possibilities range from maintaining Hailey's current operating situation to building a new Woodside fire station and expanding the city fire department into a full-time, professional crew.
In between these two options, Hailey could also consider building the Woodside station and continue with its mostly volunteer force or take the alternative path of contracting for services with another fire department. Under the latter scenario, likely candidates to provide fire services in Hailey could include Wood River, the Ketchum Fire Department, or even a private contractor, Barker said.
While she's included the range of options all as possibilities, Barker seems to clearly believe that contracting for services is Hailey's best option.
Among the benefits she lists under this option are no initial capital costs, lesser annual budgetary requirements and fewer management or administrative demands on the city.
As another way to improve fire service in Hailey, Barker recently suggested the Hailey Fire Department and Wood River discuss how to improve the automatic aid agreement guiding how the two departments work together.
As the agreement currently exists, Wood River sends their aerial ladder truck with a minimum of three firefighters to all reported structure fires in the city when it's available. However, because the ladder truck is housed in Wood River's station No. 2, those firefighters must rush from the department's main station on Walnut Street over to the secondary Third Street station.
In Barker's judgement, this agreement is an inefficient use of resources. Having Wood River firefighters take those extra minutes to drive over to the Third Street station and head out on the ladder truck when they could just leave their primary station in a standard fire engine wastes time needlessly, she said.
Allowing Wood River to decide which engine should be sent based on what type of structure fire they're responding to would make more sense, Barker claims.
"Minutes matter, and they simply will not change that agreement," she said.
Changing the agreement is an idea that also appeals to Wood River's Chief Lassman, who said his department has requested the necessary change to the agreement be made.
For reported fires on single- and multi-family structures, the ladder truck simply isn't necessary, Lassman said. Letting firefighters respond to those kinds of fires with an appropriate piece of equipment would translate into faster response times, he said.
"They'd probably get on scene three to five minutes quicker," Lassman said.
Taller, three-story buildings in Hailey's downtown core are a more appropriate structure for using the ladder truck, he added.
Hailey Fire Chief Mike Chapman counters Lassman's assessment of the ladder truck issue.
Having the ladder truck respond immediately is critical so the large vehicle doesn't get caught behind other emergency fire rigs that have shown up to a fire before it, Chapman said.
"It's a huge rig. If you're more than 40 to 50 feet away from the building you can't use it," he said.
As for Wood River inquiring about a change to the agreement, Chapman said he knows of no such request having been submitted to Hailey City Hall or the Hailey Fire Department.
In Barker's opinion, elected officials representing the south valley's different jurisdictions need to base their decisions on providing the best possible service to their citizens in the most efficient way possible.
"Fire protection decisions have been made on emotional, political and anecdotal information," she said. "It is time for leaders to provide better services to the public."
A new way forward?
With so much emotion and varying opinions surrounding the south valley consolidation question, is the only hope for progress on the issue a third-party mediator?
Lassman thinks so.
"Maybe a consultant would have to come in like with Ketchum and Sun Valley," remarked Lassman, noting that the two northern Wood River Valley departments are in the midst of working to join forces.
Bringing departments together isn't easy, he acknowledged.
"Consolidation can be a scary kind of term for people. I've heard all the reasons why it won't work."
Alluding to one of those arguments, Lassman addressed his and Chapman's futures.
"I think Mike and I both know there probably can only be one chief," he said, adding that regardless of the outcome he'll support the decision.
In the end, it all comes down to the will of the public and the efficient use of scant resources, Lassman said. "We have to be responsible with the dollars people have given us," he said.
In that regard, Chapman concurs.
"It can go any way. It's all the political will," Chapman said.
The people and their elected officials, not the fire departments, set the policy, he said. From one level of fire service to the next, the decision has to be made on what's an appropriate level of service, he added.
"If you want a bucket brigade, you can do that," Chapman said.
Many involved in local fire services, including Ketchum Fire Chief Mike Elle, say that the best option for fire service in the Wood River Valley may even need to exceed the north-south split.
"I think a countywide consolidation is the only way to go."
Firefighters from four of the Wood River Valley?s fire departments?Ketchum, Sun Valley, Wood River and Hailey?work together on a joint live fire training exercise at the old Cliffview Apartments in Ketchum, also known as the Racquet Club, on Saturday, May 12. Owner David McDonald, a Ketchum resident, gave permission for the old residential building to be used for the exercise. Photo by David N. Seelig
