GARDINER — The community is now under the protection of Clallam County Fire District No. 3 after fire commissioners for the district covering Eastern Clallam County agreed to jump the county line and include Gardiner.
“It was a unanimous decision by the commissioners,” said Clallam County Fire District No. 3 Fire Chief Steve Vogel.
“It took them a few months to decide, to really sit down and look at it, but we took a look at the long term and they decided that it was going to be good to do this.”
The resolution was approved Sept. 3 by the fire commissioners and became effective 11 days ago.
Jefferson County Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Alvarez reviewed the resolution on behalf of the unincorporated community that straddles the Clallam-Jefferson line west of Discovery Bay.
Sequim-based Fire District No. 3 covers a wide swath of territory that includes the Dungeness Valley, Miller Peninsula — and now Gardiner.
Citizens’ request
The request came before the Fire District No. 3 as a result of a citizens group in Gardiner which was worried about the level of fire and medical service coverage in their area.
Gardiner is made up of Jefferson County precincts 101, 102 and section 4 of 103, and had previously been covered by Jefferson County Fire District No. 5.
However, the citizens group led by Klaus Hintermayr organized two meetings for Gardiner residents and explained that the reason they were seeking an annexation was due to a lack of able-bodied volunteers in the existing district.
Also attractive was Fire District No. 3’s proximity to a new station in Blyn, about 5 miles from Gardiner, which is staffed 24 hours a day by a certified firefighter and an emergency medical technician.
No election needed
The group collected signatures from more than 60 percent of the registered voters in the area who wanted the annexation, meaning that no election is necessary.
State law considers the proposed change to be a partial merger of one district into another, said Bob Rhoads, public information officer for Clallam Fire District 3.
The proposal is only for the three precincts from which signatures were collected.
“My group is very happy,” Hintermayr said.
“We finally have a great fire service here, and that’s a good feeling.
“Still, I want to thank god for the guys who did respond with the Jefferson County district all these years.
“I can’t fault those guys at all — they were dedicated, but we had to do something for our safety and security.”
Cost-benefit analysis
Vogel said his district did a cost-benefit analysis of the merger before the vote on the resolution and determined that it would not substantially impact the cost of service to taxpayers or their ability to respond to people in Eastern Clallam.
“Every time there is a structure fire in Gardiner, we are responding there anyway and not collecting the tax revenue from the area,” he said.
“Since we were heading there anyway, we realized it won’t be a tax loss to the people we already cover to start covering them officially and collecting the taxes from them.
“We believe it’s only going to be an increase of 24 calls a year from that area — or about two calls each month.”
Taxes from Gardiner will not be collected by the district until 2011 because of state law requiring taxing districts in the state have their boundaries set on Aug. 1 for the coming year.
Because the commissioners waited until after the deadline for 2009, the next boundary adjustment will be on Aug. 1, 2010, and taxes will be collected in April 2011.
Jefferson County Assessor Jack Westerman III was not available for comment on the specifics of the tax base ramifications Monday.
The Sequim School District also includes Gardiner, and taxes from the community already flow westward.
Vogel said that even with that gap in collecting taxes in place, the fire district intends to respond to calls from Gardiner immediately.
“We are currently setting up the new systems and organizing the technology,” Vogel said.
“We are working with both county’s dispatch to make sure the system works.
“For the next few weeks, the Gardiner area will actually be double-covered by us and by Jefferson County Fire District No. 5 as we work out the system and no one gets missed in call.”
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com