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Next Regular Board of Fire Commissioners Meeting

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 -- 7 PM

Fern Prairie Station 91

Excellence in Management

East County Fire & Rescue received the WFCA’s 2012 Management Excellence Award, placing Second in Category B. The award was announced at the Washington Fire Commissioners Association Annual Conference in Yakima on October 26th.

There are four categories in which Fire Districts compete based upon annual budgets. Category B includes Districts with annual budgets ranging from $1 Million to $10 Million. Twelve Fire Districts submitted entries in Category B. The entries were judged by a team of evaluators from outside the Fire Service. ECFR’s budget for 2011 was $1,685,824.67.

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Message From the Chief:

Welcome to the East County Fire & Rescue (ECFR) website. Thank you for taking time to ‘check-out’ the Fire District.

We are honored to serve the 10,000+ persons who live in the 60 square miles of unincorporated area that is north of—and east of— the cities of Camas and Washougal, Washington. Currently, about 70 fire, medical and support personnel respond from our six (6) fire stations to provide Emergency Medical Services, fire suppression, and public service assistance. We handled 917 incidents in 2012—a 3.2% increase in calls over last year—and a 51.5% increase over 2007 (the first full year after Fire Districts #1 & #9 merged to form ECFR).

Ours is a ‘combination’ fire agency—comprised of volunteer, part-time, and full-time personnel. MOST of our personnel volunteer their time, energy and talents to provide for a safer community. ALL of our personnel are committed to serving the persons who live in the Fire District—as well as those folks who travel through or visit our Community.

East County Fire & Rescue has served this Community since 1945. We use innovative staffing models to deliver cost-efficient response to this rural area. Careful stewardship of property tax revenue, additional revenue generated through State Mobilization (response to large wildfires anywhere in the State of Washington); and aggressive grant seeking have allowed ECFR to operate without significant reductions in programs or services; without reduction in staff hours; and without any lay-offs—during the first four years of the economic downturn.

Unfortunately, another (unexpected) drop in assessed values for 2013 (approximately a 10.69% decrease) will impact us this year—resulting in a reduction of staff hours for administrative support functions. Firefighter staffing remains unchanged—thanks, in large part, to our receipt of a federal SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response) grant. It has taken a lot of work to balance and maintain both the Emergency Response and Business functions of the Fire District while facing a loss of 30% of our total tax revenue. In real dollars, the District has lost, cumulatively, almost $1 million in total tax revenue since the economy turned sour.

We are proud of the programs and services that we are able to offer to our Customers. Please feel free to call or visit our stations to learn about our (actually your) facilities, apparatus, personnel and programs.

Please let us know if there is anything that we can do to assist you.

Sincerely,

Scott Koehler, Fire Chief

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