Applegater., May 01, 2016, Image 1

Applegater Spring 2016
Applegate Valley Community Newspaper, Inc.
P.O. Box 14
Jacksonville, OR 97530
Photo by Kathy Kliewer
SPRING 2016
www.applegater.org
Applegate Valley Community Newsmagazine
Volume 9, No. 1
1
Serving Jackson and Josephine Counties — Circulation: 11,000
Celebrating
~
Years
~
Applegate Fire Chief Fillis to retire
BY SANDY SHAFFER
Alas, after 20 years as our fire chief,
Brett Fillis is retiring! Yup, at the end of
March he and his wife Connie will head
to Baja, so I sat down with him recently
to pick his brain one last time.
I got to know Brett in 2001 when
the Applegate Partnership & Watershed
Council received a grant to write the
first community fire plan in the nation.
A long-time resident of the Applegate,
Chief Fillis saw the value of a community-
based plan and was one of our strongest
supporters, actively participating through
every level of the plan’s development and
implementation. To this day, very few
local fire chiefs have played as active a role
in their community’s fire preparedness
as our chief.
History lesson: Brett got his
first fire truck at age two. When he was
five or six, he tried to fix the babysitter’s
lighter, accidentally setting the family’s
garage on fire. When he was 16, he was
invited to attend “drill night” at Rogue
River Fire District, got hooked, and
started taking college classes at night
to get his fire science degree. He was
hired by Valley Fire Service (now Rural-
Metro) immediately after graduating
high school.
When Brett was hired in 1995 as
our fire chief, there were five fire stations,
the apparatus/engines were very “used,”
volunteer firefighters were handed used
gear, and training was hit-and-miss.
SAVE THE DATE!
The Applegater’s
Annual
Summer Soirée
●
Saturday, June 25, 6 to 9 pm
Schmidt Family Vineyards
●
Join us for dinner, wine,
live music by
The Evening Shades,
and silent auction.
●
Watch for more details
on our Facebook page.
District constituents’
ISO property insurance
rating levels were at
seven (10 being the
worst).
Twenty years
later the district has
seven stations, which
lowered ISO rating
levels to six (meaning
lower homeowner
insurance rates for
c o n s t i t u e n t s ) . We
Chief Fillis, with wife Connie, received a Certificate of
Commendation
from the Oregon Fire Chiefs’ Association in 2004.
also have a fleet of 27
Photo: Lang Johnson Photography.
updated and specialized
engines and vehicles,
top-quality air packs,
medical and rescue
equipment, and over
40 academy-trained
volunteers, all with their
own sets of gear!
Quite a change,
so I asked Brett what
his “strong suit” was—
what enabled him to
be successful in making
An advocate of real training scenarios, Fire Chief Fillis
so many improvements
watches over a prescribed fire-burn training exercise.
to the district? He said
it was because he could not accept that under one fire district’s jurisdiction. Our
“this is the way it is.” (His favorite word firefighters need to be multi-skilled here
as a kid was “why?”) He felt his ability to in the Applegate, and we’ve benefitted
“color outside the box” helped him find greatly from the fact that Brett and
creative and economical solutions to the Chief Dan Petersen (Fire District #3)
unique challenges our fire district faced. developed the first minimum 40-hour
And unique we are, with homes, training curriculum for southern Oregon
mobile home parks, businesses, farms, in 1982!
wildland-urban interface residences,
Chief Fillis also has very
campgrounds, and recreational sites all good financial sense. Our fire
Grow with respect
BY JAKOB SHOCKEY
So you’ve moved to the Applegate
with plans to “grow” this year. You’re
from Florida, New York, or Texas,
and you’ve rented a house with some
old pastureland or with a place for a
greenhouse. Maybe you’re on a hillside
and plan to clear out that manzanita and
bulldoze some terraces. The green-rush is
on, and even though the local market is
flooded, your get-rich endeavor doesn’t
Local Postal Customer
Nonprofit Org
US Postage
PAID
Permit #125
Medford OR
ECRWSSEDDM
really depend on the Oregon market
anyway, does it? So while we are being
real with each other, let me give you some
neighborly and honest advice on how to
be respectful of this watershed and its
community.
Generally, Applegaters tend
to beat around the bush in a
conversation if it’s an uncomfortable
topic. I’m not going to do that here.
Chief Fillis believes in recruiting
firefighters at an early age.
district now utilizes a five-year financial
planning system, which is supported by
constituents and funded through levies.
Our multi-talented fire staff pitches in to
refurbish engines to fit our district’s long,
narrow driveways, whether it be for a
wildfire or a medical call. They also write
grants for new equipment, help build
and repair stations, and service vehicles
in-house! Chief Fillis feels that being
fiscally ‘frugal’ as a district, as patrons,
as employees, and as volunteers is our
strongest asset.
I asked Brett which single part of
this job he most enjoyed, and, if you
know him, you’re not surprised by his
response. He’s a people person; he loved
meeting the district’s patrons, assisting us
to work through the county permitting
process for new home development,
and also helping us to achieve our fuel-
reduction goals.
See CHIEF FILLIS, page 11
Following are some of the
things that people are thinking,
but few will say to your face.
If you are putting in a grow and plan
to water it, get a water right. That’s what
everybody else has to do, and many of
our creeks can barely balance the legal
irrigation draws with fish and wildlife
needs during the summer without the
additional burden of your Honda pump.
And please, don’t illegally use your
household well for your irrigation needs.
It’s not an endless supply down there in
See RESPECT, page 24