August 16 Meeting Notes
"National Rum Day"
Meeting Leader - Robin
Invocation
"Whatever you choose to do, leave tracks. That means don't do it just for yourself. You will want to leave the world a little better for your having lived." - Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Welcome guests: Allen Blackmon, Faviola Barbosa
Announcements
August 23rd at 5:30 - Putting Bike Ride goodie bags together at Alan and Kelly's house
- Address: 1310 Castlerock Ave - Heatherwood Condo's
Alan - Apple Century Bike Ride - Biggest Fund Raiser of the Year
- Lots of open spots on the Bike Ride sign-up sheets
- 7am - 100-mile riders start
- 8am - 50-mile riders start
- 8:30am - 25-mile riders start
- Alcohol requirements have changed - We must be a 501-C3 organization - Robin will look into the change
Rotary Leadership Institute Training - 9/17/2022 to 9/18/2022
- 2 people interested at this point
- Our club is budgeted to sponsor 5 attendees
- There is room in the training for 24 people
- The training will be canceled if not enough sign up
8/20 Pybus Farmers Market Event Cancelled - Not enough volunteers
Karen the Clipboard - There is now a tab for each upcoming event
- 8/23 Goodie bag set up for Apple Century Bike Ride, 5:30 pm
- 8/27 Wayne Massing's pool party - 2pm to 5pm
- Bring appetizers
- BYOB
- Bring swimsuits
- RLI - Sept 17 and 18
Little Essentials Food Basket - We are still accepting shelf stable and canned food items. Robin will pick up the donations at each meeting.
Chris McDermott - His son is recovering from ankle and foot surgery. The surgery was required to fix an injury that occurred over a year ago.
Wayne Steele - Wayne and his daughter are being featured in a Foothills Magazine article. Wayne is the President of a fly-fishing group. He and his daughter take groups of people fishing and teach them techniques to be better at catching fish with fly's. A 1st time fisherman had great success on the last trip.
Wayne Massing - Wayne announced that a long-time dance club is ending. He and his wife were members, as well as several other Sunrise Rotary club members. The club had been a part of Wenatchee for nearly 40 years. Covid and low turnout afterwards were the reason for the closure.
Bill McDowell - Bill has been playing tennis and pickleball for a while. He recently fell on his hip playing pickleball. He is healing nicely and now back to playing tennis.
Jim Adamson - Jim informed everyone that Carol recently got hearing aids (for Jim). Maybe he will hear her better now.
Alan Walker - Alan had lunch with PJ to talk about the Bike Ride. Alan, Kelly, and Kelly's mom are traveling to Montana soon.
Robin DeRock - Robin just got back from Northern California on the late flight into Wenatchee. Chloe (the gargoyle) was very happy to see her.
Program - Brian Brett - Fire Chief - Update on Prop 1 Funding Initiative
During his last visit to Sunrise Rotary, Chief Brett shared his plans for combining the two area fire departments into a single entity. The success of the change was going to be largely dependent on the passing of Prop 1.
The Proposition passed (50.5% to 49.5% or by around 3,000 votes). Douglas county is always tough to get additional funding approved.
Both current fire districts will stay open. A board of 6 members will be put in place. 3 members from Wenatchee (Chelan Co.) and 3 members from East Wenatchee (Douglas Co.).
Before PROP 1, Wenatchee (Chelan Co.) had 36 firefighters, and East Wenatchee (Douglas Co.) had 27. The approved funds will allow for 6 more firefighters in Douglas Co. and one new station. The Rock Island area will be better covered. They have been underserved and have had one of the lowest support ratings possible which costs homeowners more on their homeowner's policies.
An additional administrative position will be needed as well. The position is Wildfire Liaison. This position manages grants the department uses to reduce future fire risk.
- Replace wood shake roofs - The grants help homeowners replace their shake roofs.
- Goats - Goat herds are used to eat grassy areas that may increase the spread of fires.
- Controlled burns - Fires are purposely set to clear areas of high risk, overseen by department resources.
- Work with the community - Educate the community on how to prevent fire risk
The new organization will be put in place on a 3-year test basis.
While PROP 1 has passed, there are still significant revenue challenges. Due to a Tim Eyman sponsored initiative, the fire districts are only allowed a 1% raise in revenues each year. This limitation does not come close to rising costs due to area growth and increasing call demand the departments face each year.
- Note: Sales taxes do not fund fire departments
This means that increasing costs can only be covered by public funds. There are a couple of options to address this shortfall.
One option is to issue another funding proposition sometime in the next 3 years.
Another is to restructure how individuals and businesses are charged for fire services.
- Home fires usually take about 3 hours
- Business fires usually take about 3 days
These and other ideas are being considered.
Combining districts has other costly challenges.
For instance, the connectors for air tanks are different in each district. That means that replacement tanks are not interchangeable during a fire. They will be replaced with a single common solution. The cost of this one change is $954,000.
Fire trucks are required by law to be replaced every 25 years. Each truck costs over $700,000. You can save $150,000 if you buy two at a time.
- Fire trucks are active for 15 years and "in reserve" for 10 years in large departments
- Old fire engines are sold to small towns that are restricted the same way.
Other Background
The department handles fires, life threatening medical calls (events that ambulances are not equipped to handle), and other incidents in the valley.
Last year there were 6.010 calls requiring the service of Chief Brett's resources. Both counties have worked together on calls even before the passing of PROP 1, however the balancing of resources was challenging at best. The number of calls increase at a rate of 400 additional calls per year.
- Last year 32% of calls were fires
- 68% of calls were medical in nature
- NOTE: Wayne Steele shared that the fire department was called for a medical emergency for his wife. They showed up at his house in 2.5 minutes.
Due to staffing limits prior to PROP 1, building fires often have had to wait for a second truck. 3 - 4 firefighters are required to enter a home on fire, but most trucks had only 2 on board at one time in the past.
The Sunnyslope fire impacted 230 homes. Those fires raised the insured risk of the entire area one step. Two steps on the insurance rating scale can increase the cost of insurance for every homeowner in the area.
New apartments being built require 2 sprinklers per unit to cover exit paths. They are not meant to stop a fire by themselves.
Buildings up to 4 stories high require 4 sprinklers but are not required to have systems that are fire department ready.
Buildings with more that 4 stories require systems that have fire department ready solutions like water access on every floor.
"Politics" or something else?
Chief Brett explained that he learned some things during the PROP 1 process.
He spent significant time and resources documenting the proposition in the voters' pamphlet. When it came out his information was spot on, unfortunately the "against" argument contained inaccuracies (misinformation).
He talked to his lawyer about it. That is when he found out that the information in the pamphlets is not required by law to be accurate or factual. They are political statements, so they are considered opinions and are not fact checked.
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Just a Thought
“Never trust your fears, they don’t know
your strengths.” Athena Singh
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No one won the raffle this week.
Upcoming Events
Aug 23th - Ginger Wireman - Hanford Site Cleanup
Aug 27th - Pool party at Wayne Massing's home. 2pm to 5pm Bring appetizers that can be outside in the heat, swimsuits
Aug 30th - Wayne Steele Classification Talk
September 7 - 11 - Bike Ride Setup (9/7 - 9/9), Race Day (9/10), Race Clean Up (9/11)
Sept 20th - Glenn King Classification Talk
September 21 - World Peace Day at Rotary Park at 5:00
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JOKE: I'm currently watching a documentary about beavers. Best dam show I've ever seen.
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