GARDINER — A group of Gardiner residents hope to convince their neighbors to agree to leave Jefferson County Fire District No. 5 and be annexed into Clallam County Fire District No. 3 to bring fire and EMS coverage closer to home.
“We have a problem,” Klaus Hintermayr told a group of 100 people gathered at the Gardiner Community Center on Wednesday night.
“Right now, if you have a medical emergency at night in Gardiner, make sure you plan ahead because the closest help is coming from Quilcene.”
Hintermayr’s group plans another meeting on the issue at 7 p.m. next Thursday. It will be in the Gardiner Community Center, 980 Old Gardiner Road.
Only volunteers
While a Jefferson County Fire District 5 fire station is located in Gardiner, it is a volunteer-only station and is often unstaffed, Hintermayr said Wednesday.
Hintermayr, a former volunteer with the department, said only a handful of able-bodied volunteers are left at the station, and if an emergency occurs, the residents must wait for help from Quilcene or Port Ludlow, both of which are about 20 miles away.
“It’s not that our guys who are volunteering aren’t good,” Hintermayr said. “It’s just a matter of time and distance. It’s a matter of staffing.
“This isn’t about personalities. It’s not about territory. It’s about getting you help when you need it.”
The solution Hintermayr sees is close to home, but it’s across the county line.
Gardiner, an unincorporated community made up of Jefferson County precincts 101, 102 and section 4 of 103, is about 5 miles from the Blyn station operated by Clallam County Fire District No. 3.
The station is staffed 24 hours a day by a certified firefighter and an EMT, said Clallam County Fire District No. 3 Chief Stephen Vogel.
Hintermayr said the best option at this point is to join the Clallam district.
Gathering signatures
Hintermayr, the organizer of a local citizen’s group, presented a plan Wednesday night to Gardiner residents, outlining what would need to be done to remove the Gardiner community from its current fire district and be annexed to the Clallam County district.
The Gardiner area has 322 registered voters who will make the decision, Hintermayr said.
With signatures of 60 percent of the registered voters on a petition, the request to be annexed would be made.
“From there, it would go to the Clallam fire commissioners, and they would decide,” Hintermayr said.
If the group doesn’t get signatures of 60 percent of the voters but does collect more than 15 percent, the issue can be brought to an election. It would again go to the Clallam County Fire District No. 3 commissioners for approval.
If the taxing districts shifted, rates would also change.
Currently, Jefferson County Fire District No. 5 residents are paying property taxes of $0.97183 per $1,000 of assessed valuation of a home for fire and EMS coverage. The district covers about 1,500 residents.
In Clallam County Fire District No. 3, residents are paying $1.37629 per $1,000 of assessed valuation of a home for fire and EMS coverage. The district covers about 30,000 residents.
Levy would change
Clallam County Assessor Pam Rushton said that, if Gardiner were added to that district, the levy would change.
She said it was likely that homeowners in Clallam County Fire District No. 3 would see a drop because the levy would be spread out among more residents, but she added she had no estimate.
Jefferson County Assessor Jack Westerman III said calculations could be determined after the official number of households is determined in a potential annexation.
Vogel said that while his district is not interested in getting involved with any type of campaign, the commissioners have said they would discuss a possible annexation of the Gardiner community.
“The official view of the fire district is that we have been approached, and the commissioners said they would consider [annexing Gardiner] if it came to that,” Vogel said.
“But it has to be up to the homeowners of Gardiner. We are not getting involved in any way.”
“We are not looking to make our district larger, but if they do approach us, since we have paid people in Blyn, that is an area we could service.”
Hintermayr said he believes he can get the 60 percent required and feels the Clallam district would accept the area.
“We’re somewhere in the 90s for signatures right now,” Hintermayr said after the meeting.
“Considering a margin of error, we have to get about 212 signatures to be safely above 60 percent.”
Hintermayr said he hopes the group can reach that number through next week’s meeting.
“People didn’t sign who had some questions we were not able to answer at this first meeting,” he said.
“We will need to get those answers for them.”
Hintermayr said he was willing to go door to door to collect the signatures.
Sufficient response
Willie Knoepfle, acting chief of Jefferson County Fire District No. 5, said he believes the district has an adequate response time to the Gardiner area in an emergency.
“We have an in-house medic who is at the station 12 days a month,” he said.
“In the last year, we have not gone over a 20-minute response time, since we get toned out.
“I’m not speaking for or against this, but we’re here, and we’re working on improving our service.”
Knoepfle said he would like to see a mutual-aid agreement established between the Jefferson and Clallam districts rather than having Gardiner leave the district altogether.
There have been past agreements, but Hintermayr said those have dissolved because Gardiner doesn’t have anyone to send to Clallam to fulfill a mutual agreement.
District 5 Fire Commissioner Linda Hanel, told a personal story as a resident of the district.
“As a citizen, I will tell you that a week and half ago my husband had a heart attack,” she said.
“I did a quick assessment of who was here on duty. We made the decision to get in the truck and drive to Blyn.”
Hanel said she believed that was the right decision, as her husband received aid at the station after a six-minute drive.
Hanel also said she believes the staffing situation at the Gardiner station is grim.
“We currently have no paid staff at the station,” she said.
“With a volunteer department like ours, the coverage is whoever is there at the time the call happens.
“When you have limited volunteers like us, it’s critical.”
Hanel said she had no comment as a commissioner, and the issue has not been discussed by the Jefferson County board of fire commissioners.
Gardiner residents make up about 45 percent of the population of the Jefferson County district.
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
