.png)
Don Gronning
NEWPORT — After nine years, many meetings, public comment and another hearing Monday night, Dec. 8, Pend Oreille County commissioners apparently aren’t ready to form a county-wide Emergency Medical Services district.
The three county commissioners are divided, with commission chair John Gentle opposed, commissioner Brian Smiley undecided and commissioner Robert Rosencrantz in favor.
During a county commission discussion Tuesday, Dec. 9, Rosencrantz wanted the commissioners to agree to vote on the formation of a district. He said Prosecutor Dolly Hunt couldn’t get the legislation drawn up before the first of the year. But he wanted commissioners to vote on it up or down before the end of the year.
After about a 20-minute discussion, commissioners agreed to have a vote at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 15.
“I’m not feeling comfortable saying we’re going to force the district on (South Pend Oreille Fire and Rescue),” said Smiley, who represents the north county. South Pend Oreille Fire and Rescue is the fire district that covers the south part of the county. SPOFR’s commissioners and fire chief have been adamantly against forming the county-wide district.
“I’m for having an EMS district but I’m not feeling comfortable the way it is,” Smiley said. “So I don’t know.”
Gentle, who represents the south end of the county, said an EMS district would be a taxing district.
“We’re not creating a holiday, or a half mast day, we’re creating a taxing district,” Gentle said. “The threshold ought to be ridiculously high.”
After Smiley asked him if he was against forming any junior taxing district, Gentle said he would be in favor of forming the EMS district if SPOFR Fire Chief Shane Stocking was in favor of it. He said what he wanted going in was for the fire chiefs of Fire District 2 and SPOFR to agree on a proposal. That hasn’t happened.
Gentle said the one piece that might have appeased SPOFR was in the draft bylaws that Rosencrantz wrote. In that draft, it would take a unanimous vote by an EMS board before any action was taken if the district were formed. Supporters of an EMS district said at the Monday night public hearing at the Camas Center in Cusick that requiring a unanimous vote meant gridlock.
Rosencrantz is the only one of the three county commissioners who is clearly in favor of the district. He wanted a vote before the end of the year and if the commissioners voted to go ahead with the district, to do so by March.
Gentle said separate north county and south county services made sense. Smiley asked Rosencrantz what the pros and cons of having a split EMS district were.
“The key word in that is spilt,” Rosencrantz said, “when we represent the county.”
Rosencrantz pointed out that cycles are long and memories are short. He said two years ago when SPOFR was short on money, the SPOFR commissioners were in favor of an EMS district.
Gentle said the landscape was wildly different now than when POEMS, the private ambulance service, went out of business. He was proud that the fire districts were able to serve without an EMS district.
“I am so proud to be one of the last places in the state that had so much hustle in my fire districts that they didn’t need to just say, ‘Well we’re just going to tax the people instead,’” Gentle said.
At the public hearing Monday night, Newport City Administrator Abby Gribi and Stocking spoke against the formation of a district, while Fire District 2 Fire Chief Christopher Haynes and newly elected Fire District 4 fire commissioner Alan Thompson spoke in favor.
Rosencrantz started the hearing by noting that the county has been considering forming an EMS district since 2016. The effort has started and stopped several times, Rosencrantz said. When Pend Oreille EMS, the private ambulance firm, went out of business in 2022, the effort started again.
“The future of Advanced Life Support services were on the line,” Rosencrantz said Monday night. County commissioners have been meeting with municipalities and fire districts to figure out the best approach to preserve the sustainability of those services. There have been 10 workshops and four public hearings.
“There remains a strong difference of opinion between those in favor of forming the district and those opposed,” he said.
He said one point on which opponents and supporters agree is that there is no urgent need to form the district right now. Fire districts are performing at high levels.
“So why are we doing this?” Rosencrantz said. “Because I believe that with emergency services, it is better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it and that waiting for a crisis before forming the district would be wrong.”
Rosencrantz said if the county commissioners formed the district there were two important principles: It would be a non-taxing district and no fire district would be forced into any operational change.
Haynes pointed out that in the last 25 years four private ambulance firms have come and gone in Pend Oreille County. He is in favor of a county-wide EMS district.
“I have attended dozens and dozens of meetings over the past nine years working towards this,” he said. “Fire Districts have worked tirelessly with this board and with county leadership to reach the point where an EMS district is finally within our grasp.”
He said the belief that what works today will work tomorrow is shortsighted.
“We live in a rural county,” he said. “We must plan for the future and not wait for another crisis to force us into action.”
Stocking said it was bad governance for commissioners to form an EMS district against the wishes of the largest population base. He pointed out that the EMS districts in Kootanai and Bonner counties were struggling financially because of poor governance.
