By Alan Fahnestock
Autumn means elections in this fair country of ours. We are, once again, pondering the deep, abiding questions: “Does the pink envelope go inside the yellow one? Or the other way around? Did I put a stamp on it?”
This November election is critical for Okanogan County Fire District 6 firefighters. Proposition 1 on the ballot is about temporarily raising the levy ‘lid’ to finance a new district fire station in Winthrop. But this proposition is about a lot more than a fire station. It’s about the volunteers who staff it. It’s about guys like Jeremiah who fixes your car, and Mark who makes sure your lights turn on, and Jesse who makes sure your food is fresh, and Brian who sells your house. These are some of the guys who gallop out and risk their lives when your barbecue blows up, or your neighbor’s burn-pile takes on a life of its own. And they’ve done it for years. They and their fellow volunteers need this new fire station.
The main fire station in uptown Winthrop is too old and too small. It floods when it rains and the doors won’t open when the ground freezes. It has one seriously grim restroom, and no shower to get the carcinogens off before going home to family. OSHA wants to impose daily fines for safety violations that can’t be fixed. It’s in the middle of a dense residential district at the top of a nasty hill.
For training purposes (and, boy, do we train — hundreds of hours a year!) it’s a nightmare. Half the time, we have to go to one of the school parking lots for the important practical stuff like driving huge trucks, and managing heavy ladders and pumps and hoses. And practicing which way you turn the wrench on the hydrant so that in the middle of the night when the homeowners are freaking out, and the kids are crying, and the dogs are barking we can depend on our training to save precious time by getting it right.
Yes, the fire station will cost money: $2.4 million to be precise. That’s about what the district saves you every year by having volunteers. Some people think it’ll cost more, because with financing it adds up to around $3.5 million over 20 years. Well, that’s sort of correct, because there will be interest to pay, just like when you bought your house.
We volunteer firefighters know money is important, particularly when you don’t have much. Due to some unfortunate wording on the ballot, it looks as though we’re asking for 79 cents per $1,000 of valuation. Actually, that includes the 61.5 cents you are already paying, below the average for day-to-day fire protection in this part of the world; we just want an additional 17.5 cents for the next 20 years. That means that, with that $200,000 house you own, you’re currently paying around $123 a year for district fire-protection, which, mostly because the volunteers are so good, has recently improved your insurance rating. Go ask your insurance guy. With the levy increase, you’ll pay $35 more per year, less than a half-tank of gas in most rigs.
I believe in this fire station so much that I volunteered to chair the PAC to promote it, Support Your Local Firefighters. I even sang at a fundraiser, which was probably tougher on me than on the listeners (and, believe me, it was no picnic for the listeners). I believe in it so much, here’s my email: fahnestockalan@yahoo.com. Send me your questions and I’ll do my best to get back to you quickly with straight answers.
Please vote — it’s what this country is all about. Vote yes on Proposition 1. Give Jeremiah, Mark, Jesse, Brian and the rest of your volunteer firefighters a safe place to hang their helmets.
Alan Fahnestock is a volunteer with Okanogan County Fire District 6 and lives in Mazama.
