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Fire station grant stirs concerns

Some councilors worry requirements may create financial burden for city

By Andrea Damewood
Published: March 29, 2011, 12:00am

City council’s new citizen comment format draws praise

A few members of the Vancouver City Council expressed reservations Monday night about accepting a $2.3 million federal grant that would reopen a shuttered fire station.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Friday that Vancouver is among the recipients of a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant, which would allow the city to hire 13 new firefighters to restaff Fire Station 6 at 3216 N.E. 112th Ave.

But it also stipulates that the city cannot deviate from the approved scope of the grant without FEMA approval. Those requirements include keeping the fire department at 165 uniformed firefighters, filling any vacancies that might come through attrition, for the two-year length of the grant.

Vancouver has a projected general fund budget deficit of $2 million to $4 million over the next two years, and an unresolved labor contract with the firefighters’ union that likely won’t be settled before summer. Both those elements add to concerns that accepting the SAFER grant could cleave too heavily into departments that have already borne the brunt of the city’s considerable cuts.

“The issue is very complex… there are ramifications and implications — it’s not simple for this council to willingly accept (the grant),” Mayor Tim Leavitt said during a new citizen forum, after an advocate for the station congratulated the city council on winning the award.

FEMA asked the council in February to confirm it would accept a SAFER grant under those conditions. While several councilors also expressed reservations then, they voted to say they would take the money. However, the council will not formally accept the grant until it adopts its spring supplementary budget in May, giving leaders the chance to change their minds.

City Manager Eric Holmes recommended to the council that they accept the grant as a two-year “bridge” until they can find a permanent budget solution. Response times around the Burton-area station and citywide have gone up since the firehouse closed Jan. 1; reopening it would reduce average response times by 2½ minutes in the area and 30 seconds citywide, Holmes said.

Still, Councilor Pat Campbell likened the city’s acceptance of the SAFER grant to a family getting a luxury car for free, but then struggling to pay for premium gas and costlier repairs.

“We have to make sure we have the financial ability to live with that grant,” Campbell said.

“If that luxury vehicle was going around making the city safer, I’d cut down on my other bills, like cable and groceries,” responded Mary Elkin, founder of Friends of Fire Station 6. “I’d start clipping coupons.”

Fire Chief Joe Molina said last week that after the council’s February indication that they would take the SAFER grant, he began preliminary recruiting, and interviews of potential new firefighters began Saturday. Firefighters could be trained and ready to reopen the station as soon as June, he said Friday. However, the city cannot spend any of the grant money until the city council formally accepts it.

Andrea Damewood: 360-735-4542 or andrea.damewood@columbian.com.

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