City of Orting, Orting Fire District, working hard to continue service, relationship

April 27th is a crucial date for the continued cooperation of the City of Orting and Orting Valley Fire and Rescue (Pierce District #18). Voters in both communities will decide that day if the contract for Fire and Emergency Medical/Rescue service that has been in place between the two since mid-2008 will allow continuation of service in the form of an annexation.

The City Council voted on January 13th to request annexation to the Fire District to allow continuation of existing service. Fire District Commissioners considered the request and voted on January 19th to request an election take place. Voters in the City and the District must separately approve the annexation.

Since July of 2008 the District's headquarters has been in the Public Safety Building on SE Washington St. in Orting. The District responded to 1393 calls in 2009 70% of which were emergency medical in nature. 746 responses were within the City and the remainder in the District. Average response times for the City and the District are 6.8 minutes.

Both entities have, at various times, operated separate departments. City and District representatives point out efficiencies of operating as one. "I don't think it makes sense to anyone to have two separate fire departments operating with their own chiefs and staff operating blocks away from each other", said Shawn Mahoney, Commission Chair for the Fire District.

Orting Valley Fire and Rescue is a combination fire department which operates with a blend of 29 volunteers and 15 paid firefighters and paramedics.

An affirmative vote in April would allow the District to continue providing service to the City and receive the same funding from the City that District residents pay. For the last two years, the City has been paying the contract utilizing "in-kind" assets of apparatus and the headquarters station. In-kind for the apparatus runs out in 2011. At that point, the City would not be able to pay the same rate as District taxpayers. District Commissioners have been "very sensitive" regarding this issue, not wanting to promise continued service if full payment cannot be made. "We could end up in a situation where we are "gifting" service to the City if they cannot pay the same rate as District residents" said Mahoney.

The tax rate in the District for Fire and Emergency Medical service is $2.00 per thousand of assessed valuation. In order to maintain existing City services and be a part of the Fire District, City residents would pay approximately .28 cents or about $56 annually on a $200,000 home.

"We have been very happy with the service provided by the District" said Cheryl Temple, Mayor of the City of Orting. Temple also agreed with Mahoney that the contract and continuing the service through annexation makes the most sense. "We work hard to find ways to make our operation efficient" said Temple, "and this represents an effective way to continue our relationship with the District and assure the service level does not deteriorate".

In an effort to assure open lines of communication between the City and District continue, the Fire Board has agreed to increase the size of the Board from 3 to 5 members with the new members initially being appointed from City residents. Both the Council and Board have assigned "ex-officio" representatives to each others meetings which began at the first of the year.


Contact: Mayor Cheryl Temple - 360-893-2219; Fire Commission Chair Shawn Mahoney - 360-893-2221
City Mgr. Mark Bethune - 360-893-2219; Fire Chief Paul Webb - 360-893-2221