community
april18
2013
VRFPD Board of Directors
Candidate Interviews continued from front page
Christie is also a Paramedic who works
for Metro West and teaches at PCC. We
have a son, little Ben who is 21 months
old.
Luke Ellis: I grew up in Vernonia and
lived here for twenty-nine years. I grad-
uated from high school here and then
got my culinary degree from Western
Culinary Institute. When I was a ju-
nior in high school I was part of the Fire
Science program we had here and then
joined the department during my senior
year in 2002, so I have been a firefighter
here for over eleven years. I recently
helped start the Pancake Breakfast, I’ve
been an Officer-in-Training, and I’ve
grown with the department and helped it
move forward.
I would bring the perspective
of the volunteers to the Board. I have a
different point of view than a lot of the
Board members currently have. I am
more for the volunteers and for better
Public Relations and communicating
with the public. I want to make sure the
volunteers are taken care of. I also know
we can’t lose sight of the business side
and make sure that things get done and
paid.
I am married to Torie, who has
also been a volunteer Firefighter for
eight years. We have three children: Jo-
seph, 6, Jordynn, 3 and Joshwa, 2. Our
children are sixth generation Vernoni-
ans.
Mike Demeter: My wife Marci and I
moved here in 1989 so this will be our
twenty-fourth year in Vernonia. People
in the community may know who Marci
and I are, we’re the people with the large
Irish Wolfhounds; we try to march in the
St. Patrick’s Day Parade every year.
When we first moved out here
we were destitute, to put it mildly, and
so we used a lot of the services that were
available. Over the years as things have
improved for us we have managed to
start giving things back to the commu-
nity. I joined the Fire Department a little
over five years ago, right after the flood
when we had lost so many of our fire-
fighters who had to move away or quit.
I worked with the department for a little
over four years; I resigned in January be-
cause my work situation changed and I
was no longer able to meet the time and
training requirements.
I work for Intel, I’m a staff se-
curity engineer there and I travel the
world working with very diverse groups
of people. I work in multi-cultural, di-
verse groups, trying to find consensus,
trying to work getting things done. We
always tell people, “Don’t come to the
table with a problem, come to the table
with a solution.” I think people need to
do their homework and bring solutions
so you can move forward.
Why are you running for the VRFPD
Board of Directors?
Ben Davis: The Board of Directors is
something I have been interested in for a
while because it’s a position where I feel
I can still serve the community. Right
now I feel this is the best way for me to
serve the department and the community
with not as much of a time commitment.
I also have a lot of interest because it has
to do with the administration side of the
district; to this point I have mostly been
involved in day-to-day operations and
I am really taking more interest in the
strategic planning, long term goals and
administration of fire districts, not just
the responding aspect. That is the direc-
tion I am wanting to go and still be able
to serve the community.
Luke Ellis: I think the best step for me
now to move further is to join the Board
and implement changes.
I see things falling through the
cracks on the Board. I want to see it run
like a business. If you don’t run it like a
business it will go under.
I have been on the department
and have seen what has gone on in the
past and been here as we worked through
the hard times and tried to rebuild it. I
want the community to know that we
are here for them, not just because we
have to be there. I want the commu-
nity to know what we do and somehow
give more ownership to the community.
We’re a small community and a small
department. If you pull the community
in more I think we will go further and
people will respect more what we do and
understand what we do and support what
we are trying to do.
Mike Demeter: We have lived here
for both of the floods. I know how de-
pressed the economy is here. I know for
a fact that the Fire Department has lots
of needs, lots of things that are breaking
on a regular basis and it costs them tons
of money to fix. The problem is that we
can’t go to the community and ask them
for more money, because they are al-
ready cash strapped with the water rates,
the electric rates, our tax rates and the
work base-there is no work here. So it’s
going to take people who can go out and
look for other means to resolve it.
My job with Intel and the
amount of travel that I do was prohibit-
ing me from volunteering. I didn’t want
to resign but it was getting harder and
harder for me to maintain the 135 hours
of minimum training each year. It was
very frustrating for me to not be able to
go out on calls, so this is a way for me
to still be involved with the Fire Depart-
ment because I really miss it.
I want to do this for myself and
for the community. I joined the Fire De-
partment to give back to the community.
I had to leave because my job required
it, so I wanted something that I could
do even if I’m away—I can do the read-
ing and the work when I’m away and
with Board meetings just once a month
I can contribute. I have access to lots
of research tools and capabilities. I have
written grants for VRFPD in the past,
this would give me more time and a
chance to help in that way.
As a Board member, what would you
hope to accomplish? What are your
goals?
Ben Davis: A Board members role is
to set policy, make sure the budget is
balanced properly and that the public’s
funds are spent correctly. I think, at
times we have had Board members who
have maybe tried to get a little too in-
volved in operations, which is not their
position. My goal as a Board member is
to help with the long term direction that
Chief Smith and the volunteers want to
go. The Board needs to work as a team
to find ways to promote and reach those
long term goals. We have a good group
of volunteers and we have a good Chief
and as a Board member I hope we can
help them accomplish their goals within
the confines of the budget and the law.
My goals include helping with the stra-
tegic planning and direction.
Personally, over the years I have
seen a need in the training aspect-it’s
why I filled that role for several years.
I personally think the department, in the
future, may need at least a part-time,
paid position created—someone who
can dedicate time to do that training for
us. It is a job that requires a big commit-
ment and isn’t something Chief Smith
necessarily has time to do. There are a
lot of small departments around the state
that have a paid Chief and a part-time
training officer to make the organization
run well, I think that is a good goal for
the district.
There are also long term issues
with apparatus that needs to be replaced
and some issues with the station facility
that may need to be changed in the fu-
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ture. Those are long term things that I
think, between the Board of Directors,
the Chief and the volunteers, we can all
get on the same page and really move
forward with a good strategic plan.
Luke Ellis: I think we need to figure out
how we can get a second paid person at
the station full time, so we have some-
one there five days a week, from 9 to 5.
We also need to do something
to update the rigs. Maybe going out and
getting some grants or eventually to
push for a bond, but figuring out how to
get some new rigs. There are four rigs
that honestly need to be replaced.
I think we need goals for the
department, in the sense that the Board
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