PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 8, 2015
many benefi ts, which hinge
upon the support of a new
bond. This bond will be vital
in providing the equipment
necessary to help our fi refi ght-
ers and paramedics continue to
provide quality service to the
community. Currently, KFD is
responding on 10 to 12 calls
for service every day. The am-
bulances in KFD’s current fl eet
are aging and with the high
demand for service these ve-
hicles aren’t lasting as long and
breaking down more often. The
bond will provide the capital
necessary for purchasing new
ambulances so KFD can con-
tinue to provide quality emer-
gency medical services to the
citizens of Keizer.
BH: The existing bond mea-
sure, which was passed to con-
struct the current fi re station, is
set to expire. Asking the voters
to pass another bond measure
would provide the funding to
replace aging equipment with-
out increasing costs to property
owners. I fully support taking
this measure to the voters and
intend to work on the commit-
tee to pass the measure.
JM: The fi re chief, board and
budget committee have been
very thoughtful in considering
the current and future needs to
replace the entire fl eet of ve-
hicles before they become a
danger and more expensive to
maintain. This is a perfect time
to ask the voters for this bond
as it will be replacing the expir-
ing bond which the citizens of
Keizer have been so supportive
of in the past. The one future
need not being addressed by
this board is the future need
of additional stations. There is
only one station in Keizer Fire
District. An increasing call vol-
ume and pending expansion of
the urban growth boundary are
going to increase the workload
of the already very busy station,
causing longer response times. I
think Keizer Fire should study
the data of response times, fu-
ture growth probabilities, and
effects of adding stations in the
future before fi nalizing the plan
for the bond in November.
KFD’s fi re engines are also in
need of replacement. The age of
fi re apparatus directly impacts
a fi re department’s Insurance
Service Offi ce (ISO) rating.
This rating is used to deter-
mine fi re insurance premiums.
If KFD’s aging fi re apparatus is
not replaced, the district is at
risk of losing its current ISO
rating of 2, thus potentially in-
creasing insurance rates.
CP: The main issue facing
the next board is what to do
deployment plan to match the
increasing call volume. KFD has
excellent response times and al-
ways ensures an adequate num-
ber of paramedics are on scene.
BH: I would defi nitely pre-
fer that ambulance service be
continued through the district.
The primary reason is that it
is easier to control quality of
service when employees work
directly for the district. Under a
contract, issues would be much
more diffi cult to manage. Em-
ployees have a supervisor other
than district personnel. The dis-
trict would have to show that
there was a breach of contract
and the actions taken in the
situation would be up to the
contracting agency rather than
district personnel. In a town as
small as Keizer, providing ex-
cellent service to the commu-
nity is critical.
JM: I would prefer to have
Keizer Fire continue to provide
ambulance service to the citi-
zens of Keizer. Keizer Fire pro-
vides excellent service and it is
what the community has grown
to expect. The diffi culty with
private ambulance service is the
pressure to provide sharehold-
ers a profi t. If a company has
a goal of providing $200,000
profi t to the shareholders, that
is $200,000 not being used to
provide you with EMS. To en-
sure an ambulance company
stays profi table with the lim-
ited amount of reimbursement
from Medicare and insurance, a
private company has no choice
but to cut equipment, reduce
the number of ambulances to
cover an area and pay employ-
ees less. The results are longer
response times and overworked,
under-appreciated paramedics
being required to make life and
death decisions while keeping
their eyes on the profi t mar-
gin. Treating employees in this
manner also results in a high
turnover rate, causing all the
experienced people to leave.
An inexperienced, overworked,
under-appreciated paramedic
with the cheapest equipment,
is not the person I want taking
care of my family or yours.
CP: This is an issue of de-
ciding between managing an
outside contract versus provid-
ing services in-house and de-
termining whether one option
is better than another. From my
personal experience, the answer
to this questions deals with the
expertise that’s required, the
quality of personnel providing
the services and the control that
the organization has over the
provision of services. Without
a doubt, KFD has the expertise
and well-qualifi ed staff to pro-
vide ambulance services. Given
that, I would prefer to offer
ambulance services through
the district and to maintain the
day-to-day control over the
provision of those services.
How would you help
improve relationships
between MCFD1 and KFD?
MB: I think it is imperative
for KFD to have a good work-
ing relationship with its mutual
aid partners. MCFD1 and KFD
are going through a time of
change. This change is affecting
all levels of each organization.
While at times change is chal-
lenging, I think it will ultimate-
ly improve the two agencies’ re-
lationship with one another. It
is important to learn from the
past, and is equally important
to have an open mind for the
future. I know at some point
both agencies will have to rely
on each other for assistance. In
that time of need both agencies
need to put providing the best
service possible above all else.
BH: KFD has mutual aid
agreements with many sur-
rounding fi re agencies includ-
ing MCFD1. This is most im-
portant to ensuring continued
timely service to residents and
businesses. It is important for
KFD to communicate on a reg-
ular basis with MCFD1, Salem
Fire and other agencies to de-
termine if there are other ways
to cooperate. I would both ad-
vocate for those joint meetings
and volunteer to serve on them.
My experience in helping citi-
zens understand how to com-
municate with local govern-
ment offi cials would be useful
for such communications.
JM: I would look for oppor-
tunities that are mutually ben-
efi cial to both agencies. Some
very simple cost saving ideas
that could be easily implement-
ed are sharing payroll, medi-
cal supply purchasing, vehicle
maintenance services, records
keeping and other basic admin-
istrative services. The MCFD1
volunteers of Clear Lake are un-
available to respond to about 30
percent of their calls and the
north end of KFD has a long re-
sponse time from the very busy
E355 on Chemawa Road. Both
MCFD1 and KFD are in need
of an additional staffed fi re en-
gine but currently neither can
afford to add a fully staffed 24/7
engine company. Together, each
could partially fund staffi ng a
fi re engine on the border of
MCFD1 and KFD in the Clear
Lake Station that responds into
Keizer and the North end of
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MCFD1. Exactly how much
each agency would put into
it should be based on the pre-
dicted use of the shared engine.
If one-third of the time the en-
gine was predicted to go into
Keizer, then Keizer should pro-
vide one-third of the personnel
and MCFD1 could provide the
other two-thirds of the person-
nel. A similar model has been
successful between Portland and
Gresham. Medic 32 was started
in this fashion as a joint venture
between MCFD1 and KFD
until both agencies eventually
were able to afford additional
staffi ng. Currently, the Clear
Lake fi re engine and ambulance
do not cross Parkmeadow un-
less there is a working structure
fi re or both Keizer ambulances
are busy. MCFD1 has relied
on its engine from Chemeketa
to cover Clear Lake when the
volunteers are unavailable when
it would be faster to request the
much closer engine from Keiz-
er.
CP: I believe the relation-
ship between the two districts
has been further eroded by a
staff member of MCFD1 run-
ning for a KFD board seat and
the ideas that he is putting forth.
Th e ballot box is not the place
to start this kind of conversa-
tion. A work group consisting
of the two chiefs, key staff and
select board members should be
created. This group would meet
regularly to discuss issues fac-
ing the two districts and fi nd-
ing ways for the two districts
to work more collaboratively. If
a facilitator is needed to kick-
start this process one should be
hired and kept involved until
he/she is no longer needed.
Ask Mr. Trash
©1986
FIRE,
continued from Page A1
with an aging fl eet of appara-
tus and vehicles. Several are at
the end of their useful lives, and
with mounting maintenance
costs, the best alternative is to
buy new. The KFD staff have
developed a well-thought-out
20-year plan for the replace-
ment for all apparatus and ve-
hicles, a plan they presented to
the Citizens’ Advisory Com-
mittee meeting this past Febru-
ary. The committee was recep-
tive and supportive. To cover
the costs, the current plan is
with a bond issue that would be
repaid through a property tax
assessment. In January 2016, the
current outstanding bond that
was issued for the fi re station
will end. The tax assessment re-
quired for the new bond will be
at the same rate as the fi re sta-
tion bond issue, so taxpayers in
the district will see little if any
change on their tax bill.
Given the choice between
continuing to offer
ambulance services
through the district and
contracting them out,
which would you prefer?
MB: I would prefer to con-
tinue to have a fi re-based am-
bulance service. Having had the
opportunity to work in both
systems, I feel the citizen gets
the best service from a fi re-
based ambulance system. Pri-
vate ambulance companies are
a for-profi t organization and
in order to survive, have to be
concerned about the bottom-
line. This usually means only
one paramedic per ambulance,
fewer ambulances in the system,
and longer response times. KFD
has been providing transporting
ambulance service for more
than 20 years. They have put
a priority on providing qual-
ity emergency medical service
and have always adapted their
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Colleen
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Salem Area Mass Transit District
Director, Subdistrict 2
**
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