Fire district merger on April ballot

If approved, merger would be effective June 1

Matt Baide | Mar 02, 20230

If voters approve, Island Lake Fire, also know as Mason County Fire Protection District 11, will merge with Central Mason Fire & EMS on June 1.

The measure was submited to the county Elections Department Feb. 23 for placement on the ballot during an April 25 special election.

According to Resolution No. 23-03, the commissioners of both fire districts have approved a plan to merge.

“The boards of commissioners believe that it is in the best interests of the two districts and the citizens they serve to merge and combine their operations into a single fire department,” the resolution reads.

Island Lake Fire Chief Brandon Searles told the Journal in an email that in March 2022, Fire District 11 commissioners recognized the need to discuss consolidation or a merger with a neighboring fire district to help provide the best service for constituents.

Fire 11 commissioners approved the merger Oct. 19 and Central Mason commissioners approved a resolution to merge

Nov. 2. The merger must be approved by voters of the merging district.

Island Lake Fire covers the area around Island Lake, including Sanderson Field, the Port of Shelton’s airport business park, Mason County’s Public Works facility, and several isolated tracts scattered thoughout the north edge of the city’s urban growth area that include Shelton Memorial Park and and a stretch of Northcliff Road.

Central Mason Fire Chief Jeff Snyder told the Journal this will be beneficial to both districts and will put more eqiupment and boots on the ground.

“Anytime we consolidate, it creates more efficiency and eliminates the duplication of services,” Snyder said. “Mason 11, CMFE, we’ve had a long-standing partnership, going back probably more than five years ago. Central Mason and Island Lake Fire, we’re pretty deeply involved in interlocal agreements and have been working together and providing mutual aid and support. It’s been a lengthy partnership and the idea of eventually merging was something that we had been discussing for many years.”

Searles echoed Snyder’s comments about the duplication of efforts and said instead of paying for expenses individually, it will save money.

“Vehicle maintenance, we source out our maintenance. CMFE, being a larger agency, has their own fire mechanic on staff so all vehicle maintenance will be done in-house, which would also save money,” Searles said. “The Island Lake Road fire station would be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year by a minimum of two full-time firefighters and EMT, which is an increase from what we have today. We will continue to have and seek volunteer firefighters to serve their community. Fire District 11 currently has two full-time employees and 16 volunteers whereas CMFE has over 45 full-time employees plus several volunteers.”

Snyder said Fire Chief Brandon Searles would be absorbed into CMFE and be an assistant fire chief and assistant chief Matt Heinrich would join the fire marshal’s office.

Snyder said internally, changes will be made but from the public’s perspective, not much will change.

“It provides a redundancy in the system in a sense with being able to help cover the Island Lake area,” Snyder said. “The part about this we’ve been doing already, from public’s point of view, it isn’t going to look that different.”

Searles and Snyder said that mergers and consolidation are happening statewide.

“Mergers and consolidations of fire departments are not something new,” Searles said. “Many may not hear about it a lot but it has been happening and is currently happening all over the state and country. It’s an opportunity for smaller departments to combine forces to save the citizens money but still provide the best service possible. Today, CMFE responds to most of the Fire District 11 calls. CMFE provides our advance life support services, which is a paramedic unit to all of our emergency medical service calls. CMFE also responds to all our fire calls. When a fire happens, it is important to have as many personnel and apparatus as possible respond to help stop the fire and mitigate the situation. The transition would be seamless where our citizens won’t see a huge difference because we are doing it now under our interlocal agreement. This would just formalize the process.”

According to Searles, the levy rate would increase 36 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, which means the owner of $300,000 assessed property value would pay an additional $9 per month. The increased levy rate would bring Fire District 11 residents up to the CMFE levy rate.

“Another issue we are facing is increased expenses,” Searles said. “We are all seeing it every day with fuel, food, and supplies for our homes and businesses. Not to mention the supply chain of getting items delivered. We are no different. We are seeing huge increases in the items we need to purchase to effectively perform our job. Being a small department, this is hitting our operating budget hard. It has been a juggle trying to keep up with the increases in cost despite our budget not increasing. State law prevents fire districts from increasing their levies more than 1% annually without voter approval. As assessed valuations rise, levy rates decline to keep revenue increases under the 1% cap.”

If approved by voters, the merger would be effective on June 1.

“Internally, it allows us to streamline the process and improves by us being able to thoroughly train and staff,” Snyder said. “It creates efficiencies that aren’t there right now. From the outside, their fire station is still going to be there.”