An article was recently written that quotes a council member of Puyallup and others who were involved in combing a fire district and city fire department with the intention of improving/preserving service while controlling costs. Its been over a year now since the merger and this is article that talks about the effects and benefits. The biggest one that is not mentioned immediately is how much money it saved the City of Puyallup.
Central Pierce forging ahead
County fire district taking on the challenges of integrating Puyallup units
Neil Pierson
Published: April 29th, 2009 08:00 AM
Nearly 120 days after it began, the merging of the Puyallup Fire Department into Central Pierce Fire and Rescue is still an ongoing task.
Puyallup voters approved the merger last December with the hopes of reducing costs while increasing services. When the merger officially began on Jan. 1, efforts to retrain Puyallup firefighters to deal with new policies and procedures got hot and heavy, said Matt Holm, Central Pierce’s assistant chief for prevention and public education.
Holm said transfers were especially busy during the first month and might have experienced some “information overload” during the daily classes and briefings they attended. But the process has largely been a positive one, he noted.
The more important piece, Holm said, is maintaining quality responses to Puyallup residents.
“I think what the people of Puyallup were pleased with was the amount of resources they had that they didn’t have in the past,” he said.
Central Pierce gained roughly 60 members during the merger, putting its total number of employees near 300. More firefighters can be employed now since duplicate administration positions were eliminated.
Puyallup City Councilmember Rick Hansen has served as an ex-officio board member for the district since February. While he doesn’t have voting rights, he is encouraged by the way Central Pierce conducts its business.
“I have the ability to comment on anything there and they definitely listen to anything I have to say,” Hansen said. “I really think it’s becoming a cohesive unit.”
Both Holm and Hansen said it’s too early to tell whether the consolidation will positively impact the pocketbooks of district taxpayers. Revenue from the city’s fees won’t be transferred to the county until 2010 and Hansen believed it might take several months after that to gauge the financial impact.
Consolidations are nothing new for Pierce County fire departments. Central Pierce was created in 1996 when departments from Parkland, Midland, Spanaway, Summit and South Hill merged. The city of Sumner joined with East Pierce Fire and Rescue last year.
“Very few cities have their own fire protection any more,” Holm said of Pierce County and south King County.
Integrating a large urban population such as Puyallup isn’t an overwhelming task, Holm said. South Hill and Parkland, which were already part of the district, are of similar size.
But Puyallup does have more senior citizens, which the district must take into account when allocating emergency medical personnel.
Having Central Pierce assume control has positively impacted response times. Hansen noted the Shaw Road station in Puyallup has shown a big jump in that area since January.
While Hansen said it was a sad day when Puyallup lost its own department, the benefits have outweighed the consequences.
“There’s no question they’ve been a huge benefit to the public,” Hansen said. “The service level to the city of Puyallup has definitely not fallen down.”