Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
REARDAN – The Town of Reardan recently approved an updated fire and emergency services contract with Fire District No. 4 at its Sept. 17 meeting.
Mayor Gail Daniels signed the contract at the meeting. Fire commissioners Carol Paul, Casey Nonnemacher and John Bennett were expected to sign it shortly after press time at their commissioner’s meeting.
The contract, officially called the “Fire and Emergency Medical Protection Agreement,” goes into effect Oct. 1 and ends Dec. 31, 2022. If a written notice of termination isn’t provided by either party, the contract will automatically renew for another two year term.
In the contract, Fire District No. 4 “agrees to furnish fire prevention, fire suppression, emergency medical and hazardous materials incident response services … to all properties and persons presently within or annexed to Reardan.” These services will be given at the same level as all other areas within Fire District No. 4’s jurisdiction, but the district has no liability for failure to provide these circumstances if the reason is circumstances beyond the district’s control.
If there are two calls for service at the same time and one is within the town and one is outside town, the district makes the choice about which call to respond to first if both cannot be served at the same time, the contract states.
“(Fire District No. 4) shall be the sole judge as to the most expeditious manner of handling and responding to emergency calls,” the contract reads.
The annual cost to the town will be equal to “the product of the assessed valuation of taxable property and Reardan owned property within Reardan’s corporate boundaries multiplied by the tax rate actually levied by the District within its boundaries.”
Assessed valuation refers to the regular assessed evaluation established each year by the Lincoln County Assessor’s Office, per the contract.
The district will invoice the town after calculating the town’s annual payment and invoice the town no later than March 1 of each year. The charge will be quarterly payments on or before the first day of each calendar quarter.
Any unmetered water connections must be converted into metered connections within 30 days of the contract’s execution, with cause to the district. The district is also responsible for adding the required backflow device to all these connections. The town will pay for any meters and their installation, while the district will pay for the installation of the backflow devices.
“The District shall not use any unmetered water, unless it is using such for fire suppression within Reardan and for the sole benefit of Reardan,” the contract states.
The town will invoice the district for all utility charges.
All district operations will continue to be administered by the fire commissioners. The district will provide a copy of all its meeting minutes to town clerk Megan Kamstra upon request, the contract says.
The district will continue to operate as an independent contractor, meaning the town has no responsibility to pay wages or salary or provide any benefits to the district.
The two parties will work together to enforce all fire codes within town limits, but enforcement authority is with the town, as was previously the case.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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