County districts can’t agree on fire protection for annexation area

Published 12:01 am Saturday, May 28, 2011

BOTHELL — Disagreements over fire protection could once again scuttle the city’s plans to annex nearly six square miles of unincorporated Snohomish County.

The city of Bothell and Snohomish County Fire District 1 have been negotiating for about a year, District 1 Fire Chief Ed Widdis said. They haven’t been able to agree on fire protection for part of the annexation area southeast of Lynnwood.

“The level of service when you annex is supposed to get better, and this is going downhill,” Widdis said.

Fire protection was one of the reasons the city wasn’t able to annex the same areas two years ago, when the Board of Boundary Review turned it down. Another hangup was a cross-county dispute over trash service, which Snohomish and King counties appear to be resolving. The area in question includes about 22,000 people.

This time around, Bothell officials reported making headway in talks with Fire District 7 on the eastern side of the annexation area. Things haven’t gone as well with Fire District 1 on the western side, they said.

A big sticking point has been whether Bothell will staff and operate District 1’s Fire Station 22 on Damson Road. The part of the station’s service area up for annexation includes land from Locust Way and Highway 524 down to Bothell city limits. For now, it’s always staffed by a captain, a firefighter and a paramedic.

Representatives from Fire District 1 and Bothell plan to speak about the issue at a Boundary Review Board meeting June 20.

If the annexation goes ahead, the city wants to staff the station on its own, rather than through a joint agreement with the fire district, Bothell Fire Chief Bob Van Horne said. Bothell’s plan calls for hiring 12 firefighter-EMTs to staff the station with three people around the clock.

“I think it would be in the city’s interest to come up with an agreement with Fire District 1, but absent that, we do have a plan to provide the service on our own,” Van Horne said.

Bothell has accused District 1 of canceling meetings on a whim and showing little interest in coming to an agreement, according to memos from March and April. District 1 officials maintained that the meeting times didn’t work for its commissioners.

The piece of land in District 1 that’s up for annexation brings in $1.9 million in property tax revenue each year — 6 percent of the fire district’s annual revenue. The district’s operating costs for Fire Station 22 are $2.6 million a year.

The annexation includes Snohomish County Fire District 10 and parts of Fire District 7. Bothell has provided service to District 10 for about 30 years, and the district likely would go away after the annexation.

Fire District 1, the county’s largest, is no stranger to disagreements over city annexations. It has challenged several, settling all but one outside of court. The district commissioners met in executive session Thursday night, partly to discuss “legal action or potential legal action,” spokeswoman Leslie Hynes said.

District 7 stands to lose $1.5 million a year if it doesn’t come to an agreement with Bothell.

District 7 and Bothell leaders both have said they hope to work out an agreement before June’s Boundary Review Board meeting. Both sides declined to discuss the specifics because they’re still negotiating.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com