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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
August 24, 2023     Shelton Mason County Journal
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August 24, 2023
 
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Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023 — Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page 9 West Mason: ‘.;.had more calls than we’ve ever had...’ continued from page The district ranks ninth among districts in tax valuation per square mile. Even ifthe EMS levy in August had passed, the aggregate tax rate would be under $1.50 per $1,000 valuation, which would put them in the middle of the county fire districts. Welander said nobody knows what is going on in Matlock with Fire Dis~ trict 12, and they have stopped attend— ing the county fire chiefs meetings. The data shows calls for West Ma- son Fire have increased by 287%, the budget has increased by 165% and the value of the district has increased by 173%. In 2021 and 2022, the dis- trict responded to 998 calls each year. “We have more calls than we’ve ever had. Our tax rate is basically the lowest in the county. We’ve got some of the oldest equipment. We’re doing more than we should with the amount of money,” Welander said. “We’re good at it, we’re good- at func- tioning with noth— ing. I’m working basically 24/7. My wife is going nuts. I don’t know how long I can keep , that up.” Welander said they do get some volunteers, but it takes a year to get a volunteer trained and ready to respcmd to calls. When asked whether they could get to the point of not being able to respond to calls, Welander said they’re already there. There was a call last weekend where no one from West Mason Fire could show up, but Central Mason Fire responded due to it being an advanced life support call. “It’s a thing, we don’t want it to be a thing. We don’t want to jeopardize our EMS license, we don’t want to jeopardize our transport license be— cause if we lose the transport license, then we lose the ability to transport and we lose the ability to make the revenue off of that, which ultimately keeps the taxpayers money home,” Welander said. “Every time Central or District 4 or somebody else trans— ports one of our patients, that pa- tient’s money, insurance, whatever, is paying for that other district’s fire protection. Why would you want that? Everybody wants a transport license, everybody wants to be able to pay their own way, do their own thing and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re not spending money on other stuff that we need, our engines with the exception of one, are all from the ’903. Of our four stations, two of them have bathrooms, there’s one shower in all four stations total. It’s not like we’re spending money on other stuff, but we need staff.” Welander said he wants to know why people voted “no” and whether it’s they don’t want fire and EMS ser- vice or if they don’t understand the reality for the district. To the people who don’t know it’s a problem, We- lander said the district is busy and people have to pay for that. To the people who are voting themselves out West Mason fire chief of fire protection, Welander wants to know why. “This is protection for the sick and injured. This is the car accidents, this is for somebody stuck in a tractor, this is a heart attack, this is all of it that goes along with it. That’s the majority of our calls, stats don’t lie,” Weland- er said. “But it’s also the only thing that we do that really doesn’t pay for itself because you have to have a certain amount of taxes, but it’s the only th’ing Where your taxes are truly a multiplier. The more you’re able to fund as far as your ambulance trans- ports and that sort of thing, the more you’re able to keep in the district as far as your ambulance insurance and all that. The other part of it is any of the districts around us that don’t have an ambulance or transport license, now we can negotiate with them and start transporting some of their patients and make even more money.” W e l a n d e r said there have been talks with districts about a potential merg- er, but it is a hard conversa— tion to have be- cause districts want‘ to keep their identity. He said they have talked to Central Mason and Fire District 4, but nothing has come of it. If the EMS levy doesn’t pass in Novem~ ber, Welander doesn’t know what the district will do or what will happen. “We’ve talked about how to keep the two em- ployees and sec— retary that we have and we’re not sure how to do that,” Welander said. “We don’t have enough volunteers or money to keep all four stations open so may- be we sell some property, maybe we offload a fire truck. We don’t know, and that was one of the conversations we had in our last strategic planning meeting. We just don’t know.” He said the district will continue to write for grants and try to gather as much funding as they can. Welander said he wants to hear from the people of the district to understand what the district can do and how they can help everyone in regards to the levy. “If people have questions, I want them to come and talk to me. Come to the commissioner meetings, come to drill, talk to volunteers, come hang out, come see what we do during the day,” Welander said. “We’re so trans— parent it’s ridiculous. We have noth- ing to hide, partly because we don’t have enough money to build up walls. It’s true, we have two full bathrooms between four stations, we have one shower between four stations. We have two bedrooms between four stations, and they’re not really bed- rooms, they’re converted office space. By all means, if someone thinks they can do it better for cheaper, come give me the ideas, come tell me how. I ab— solutely crave the input from not just the people that love me but the people that hate me too. 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