EDMONDS
It all started as a fiscal issue last May. Edmonds officials sought for an alternative to a levy, a stop-gap measure aimed at trimming the city’s $5.2 million deficit. It ended with the Edmonds City Council voting to approve a $6.2 million contract with Fire District 1, at the Nov. 2 council meeting.
The accepted 20-year contact calls for the district to provide fire and emergency medical service for Edmonds. The district will purchase the city’s equipment, while the city will retain the stations, the land the stations sit on and an estimated $700,000 in annual ambulance transport fees.
Edmonds will be brought under the FD1 umbrella Jan. 1. FD1 provides fire and emergency medical service in South Snohomish County to 150,000 residents in unincorporated areas, plus the cities of Mountlake Terrace and Brier.
Following some cursory questions from council, the vote rested 6-1 in favor of accepting the contract. Councilman Steve Bernheim was the lone dissenting vote.
“A lot of questions have been asked along the way,” he said. “It’s been a great process and we have arrived at a well-considered decision. You can’t say it wasn’t an open discussion. The tax stream hasn’t kept pace with the cost of the fire department. I would prefer to keep it in-house, but the union wants to stabilize.”
His leading concern was that in going with a public entity, Edmonds residents would lose complete voting power over their fire department.
Councilman David Orvis made the motion to approve the contract, stating that, “I am impressed with the (projected) savings and happy to know there will not be holes in service due to training and that overhead will be more service related.”
Councilman Strom Peterson seconded the motion echoing Orvis’ comments and added, “It is important to note that Edmonds is taking an important step in regionalization and being a part of a larger community.”
“This is an opportunity for the fire service to be on stable footing,” said Council President D.J. Wilson. “We will have to make cuts (in the city budget); with Fire District 1 we know cuts won’t come from fire service.”
City staff have been laid off, and others put on furlough, in an effort to shave the budget shortfall.
“You put politics aside and did your due diligence. We applaud you,” Tim Hoover, president of Local 1828 of the International Association of Firefighters said after the vote. “We have a 105-year history (in Edmonds) that we don’t take lightly. We look forward to being with you over the next 105 years.”
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