Citizen Liaison

Dr. Martha Martin is a hometown girl, born and raised in Washougal. She has a private practice as a psychologist in downtown Washougal, is married to Richard Hamby, has one son and has a grandson that was born on July 4^th. Martha is the Citizen Liaison for East County Fire & Rescue. She will be assisting ECFR in becoming more visible to the community by offering her expertise and skills, and will be an active participant in ECFR events and trainings. She will be the citizens’ point of contact if they have questions about ECFR. The goal for Martha is to open up communication to the citizens that are served by ECFR, and raise awareness about the many vital services that ECFR provides. Martha will encourage citizens to offer their perspectives, ideas, and suggestions about what they would like ECFR to do for them. Come and meet Martha at one of the regular commission meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month, starting at 7pm. You may also contact Martha at this email address: cl@ecfr.us

Public Record Request

ECFR Year End Report reveals many benefits to the community

As Citizen Liaison for East County Fire & Rescue, I pay close attention to how ECFR is providing services, reaching out to the community, and staying within their tax payer funded budget. I was impressed with several things that were included in the ECFR Year End Report for 2010.

East County Fire & Rescue provides Fire and Emergency Medical Services coverage for 60 square miles, in the unincorporated areas surrounding Camas & Washougal, from six fire stations. During 2010, ECFR responded collectively to 698 calls, 60% of which were medical emergencies.

During 2010, ECFR Firefighters and Volunteers have managed, participated in, and supported a rigorous training schedule that included “live burn” exercises, Hazardous Material training and multiple casualty incident (MCI) scenarios. They have also hosted the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training Program, and will be having another class in April of this year.

ECFR personnel have spent countless hours educating the public on the numerous aspects of a Firefighters job. Volunteers and staff visited over 700 homes in 2010 to discuss Fire Safety and answer questions about the fire district. This significant outreach provided ECFR the opportunity to connect with and educate our customers. Reports indicated that people were glad to have ECFR personnel visit and discuss the services provided by ECFR.

One item that stands out and has made a great impression this past year was the significant cost savings for the taxpayers in the East County Fire District in regards to hours of service provided by Volunteers. During 2010, the hours of training, Volunteer scheduled work activities including sleeper shifts and station standby, call responses, and regular Wednesday trainings totaled 13,289. If these hours were being paid at federally acknowledged value of Volunteer hours, the cost would be almost $375,000. By utilizing ECFR Volunteers, the services provided are the best possible without increasing the cost to taxpayers.

For more information about this or other Year End information, visit the ECFR website for the report at http://www.ecfr.us. ECFR welcomes your questions, and invites you to attend their regular Commissioner Board meetings held the first and third Tuesday of each month starting at 7:00pm. Please call the Fire Station or see the website for the location of the meeting.

Martha Martin

ECFR Citizen Liaison

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