Town moves to take over fire hall

The La Conner Town Council voted unanimously to cancel the town’s agreement with Fire District 13 and buy out its interest in the fire station on Chilberg Road near the roundabout.

This move comes after Fire 13 in December announced plans to staff the station round-the-clock to provide better service to its taxpayers on the east side of the Swinomish Channel.

Meanwhile, La Conner Volunteer Fire Department, which already has firefighters spending the night at the station, has grown too big to share space with Fire 13, the council decided at a special meeting held Thursday.

The town and fire district are co-owners of the La Conner Fire Station, which was built in 2004. Fire 13’s coverage area spans both sides of the Swinomish Channel and surrounds the town, which has its own fire department. Years ago town firefighters responded to calls on the east side of the channel. But the fire district took back that responsibility in 2011 and a new agreement was crafted, giving the town the right to buy out Fire 13’s portion of the fire station.

Mayor Ramon Hayes notified the district in writing on Friday that the town will exercise that option and would get an appraisal. Under the terms of the contract, the town and district will each obtain an appraisal of the building, and average them together to come up with a price the town will pay. The Skagit County Assessor presently has the value of the building at $631,000.

La Conner has a year to figure out how to finance the deal — town officials say possibilities include grants, a bond and a sales tax increase. In 2012 town voters approved a sales tax increase of one-tenth of 1 percent so the town could buy its new $450,000 fire truck.

On Thursday, Jan. 19, the Town Council met in a brief closed session with attorney Brad Furlong. A few minutes later in open session, on a motion by Councilman Bill Stokes seconded by Councilman John Lever, the policy makers voted 5-0 to end the town’s relationship with Fire District 13.

“Things have changed and our fire department has grown, and we need more space,” said Councilman Jacques Brunisholz.

The La Conner fire station has two sleeping quarters to allow two firefighters to spend the night at the station, and La Conner is already using both of them every night.

Fire 13 announced plans in December to add its own “sleepers.”

That announcement came after residents on the east side of the channel petitioned to withdraw from Fire 13 to join Fire District 2, which has a station on McLean Road. The residents believe there would be a quicker response from District 2, than from Fire 13, which presently responds from its Snee Oosh Road station on the other side of the channel.

At Thursday’s meeting, Channel Drive resident Dave Buchan, one of the proponents of the withdrawal effort, asked whether the town could start responding to calls on the east side of the channel again.

Mayor Hayes said the town’s decision does not change Fire 13’s boundaries and Town Administrator John Doyle explained that it doesn’t change response responsibility, either.

Fire 13 Chief Roy Horn said cancelling the contract and buying up his agency’s half of the station “is their right, we respect their right and we’ll honor that.”

And he said, “We will continue serving those people over there, even if we have to build a new station.”

La Conner Fire Chief Josh Morrison said he was happy with the council’s decision. The fire department has grown from a handful of active members to about two dozen over the last few months with lots of young recruits.

Morrison said he wants his team to feel at home in the fire hall, and “it’s hard to call a duplex a home.”

Still, the move by the town throws a wrench in Fire 13’s hopes to eliminate the response time concerns of residents east of the channel.

The vast majority of Fire District 13’s calls are on the west side of the channel, mostly on the Swinomish Reservation.

In 2016 calls in the district’s territory on the east side of the channel, which includes a stretch of Highway 20, accounted for 5 to 7 percent of Fire 13’s dispatched responses. According to figures from Skagit County Assessor Dave Thomas, the east side contributed 27 percent of the district’s property tax revenue last year.