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NEWPORT – At the regularly scheduled Fire District 4 Fire Commissioner meeting on Sept. 17, District 4 Fire Chief Robert Webber, asked the Board of Fire Commissioners to merge with one of the other fire districts in the county, with his preference being with Fire District 2.
After talking about the Webber’s proposal, the Board of Fire District 4 Commissioners voted to move forward with actions necessary to merge with Fire District 2. Wednesday, Sept. 24, Fire District 2 commissioners will vote on the proposed merger.
A merger will require a public vote before happening, Webber said. Assuming Fire District 2 agrees to go forward with the merger, the boards of the two commissions will decide the language and timing of the ballot measure, Webber said.
According to a news release from Fire District 4, Webber wrote a multi-page letter to the Board explaining why he believed it is now time to merge, and why he believes that District 2 would be the best fit for District 4’s taxpayers, as well as for the current staff.
After hearing the letter read out loud in the meet- ing, Webber asked the fire district commissioners to discuss the matter to determine multiple things such as if they felt a merger was prudent at this time, and if so, which agency would be best for our community.
Webber made the point that there is already a trusting and working relationship that administrators from both fire districts have nurtured and built. Webber also highlighted that preliminary discussions yielded favorable answers from District 2 Fire Chief Haynes in terms of a response model.
“I approached Chief Haynes looking for answers from him that I needed to have to be able to support moving forward with asking my Board to consider a merger,” Webber said in the news release announcing the proposed merger. “Among other things, I needed to know that a merger would provide for better and consistent service to the residents and visitors of Fire District 4, and I heard answers that exceeded my expectations. Furthermore, this will be done while streamlining expenses by eliminating duplicate resources. This move will also slightly lower tax rates for District 4 taxpayers all while creating a larger staff pool which will benefit a very large portion of the county.”
The letter Webber read to Fire District 4 commissioners said that about a year ago Fire District 2 approached Fire District 4 and presented a request for a merger. It was decided at that time that that even though it was evident that a merger would likely occur at some point in the future, it was not the right time.
“I very clearly stated that it was my opinion that a merger would not ever happen until the leaders of each agency had a chance to develop a trusting relationship with one another,” Webber wrote.
“On the surface all this plan appeared to be was a request to help us be able to fund a (basic life support) ambulance based within our district while also saving District 2 approximately $400,000 annually by not having to staff the same deployment model, but what it really did was work to unite the leadership of both agencies, and create a culture of trust and partnership,” Webber wrote.
A year after Fire District 2’s first proposal, the relationship between the two fire districts has never been better, Webber said in the letter.
He wrote that there were other reasons to merge with Fire District 2. “We are unable to staff the ambulance 100% of the time, and during the time that the ambulance is staffed, approximately 60% it is being done by only 4 people,” he wrote. “One of those people was me, and I clocked just under 460 hours last month, with only 168 of those hours being within my normal work periods. This is unsustainable.”
