PORT LUDLOW — Voters who live within the Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue district will decide in November’s general election whether to merge with East Jefferson Fire Rescue or continue operating under an interlocal agreement with the larger district.
Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue, formally known as Jefferson County Fire District 3, responds to about 1,000 calls a year in the communities of Port Ludlow, Bridgehaven, Beaver Valley, Bywater Way, Mats Mats, Olele Point, Paradise Bay, Shine, South Point, Squamish Harbor, Swansonville and Thorndyke, officials said.
East Jefferson Fire Rescue (EJFR), formally known as Jefferson County Fire District 1, serves the city of Port Townsend and the unincorporated communities of Cape George, Chimacum, Irondale, Kala Point, Island and Port Hadlock. It responds to about 5,000 calls a year, officials said.
As the merging district (the district seeking the merger), Port Ludlow’s commissioners — Robert Pontius, Raelene Rossart, Gene Carmody, Ed Davis and Glenn Clemens — were required by state law to submit a petition to EJFR (called the “merged district”). EJFR’s commissioners — David Seabrook, Deborah Tillman, Steve Craig, Geoffrey Masci and Deborah Stinson— accepted the merger petition and returned it to Port Ludlow. Port Ludlow then passed a resolution accepting EJFRs response and agreed to put it on the Nov. 8 ballot.
According to state law, a simple majority of voters in the merging district — Port Ludlow — need to approve the merger.
If approved, Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue would disappear as a legal entity and Fire District 3 would be absorbed into Fire District 1 to create a merged district.
EJFR has been providing operational and management services to Port Ludlow since May 2021 via an interlocal agreement. That agreement has been extended to May 23, 2023 as a contingency should voters turn down the merger, said Bret Black, the fire chief for both districts.
A merger would formalize their existing arrangement and result in a number of cost efficiencies and savings that could be redirected to better services, Black said.
Having one chief and assistant chief in a single fire district rather than employing those positions for two fire districts would save money that could enhance 911 and other emergency services, he said.
If the merger measure failed, Black said, Port Ludlow would have to hire a chief and assistant chief because those positions are currently unfilled.
A merger also would eliminate time-consuming administrative tasks, particularly those devoted to accounting for and reconciling firefighter hours between the districts which lean on each other to fill gaps in work schedules, he said.
“At the end of the month my poor staff in both districts have to follow what firefighter from Port Ludlow worked what days in East Jefferson, and East Jefferson has to know what days the firefighter worked there and not here,” Black said.
“There’s a lot of extra work going back and forth making sure that money changes hands accurately. That takes a lot of staff time and it doesn’t need to happen.”
Still in the works, Black said, is what a merged district levy rate might look like.
Next year the two districts would still be levied separately and a merged rate would kick in 2014.
Currently Port Ludlow’s levy rate is 1.24 per $1,000 assessed property value and EJFR’s is 0.999 per $1,000 assessed property value. Those rates will probably go down next year based a large increase in property values, said Jeff Chapman, Jefferson County assessor.
Also yet to be decided is how to combine the firefighting teams; Port Ludlow firefighters are represented by Firefighters Union Local 3811, while EJFR firefighters are represented by Firefighter’s Union Local 2032.
This is not the first time Jefferson County fire districts have consolidated. In 2005, Jefferson County Fire District 6 merged with Fire District 1, and in 2019 the City of Port Townsend was annexed to Jefferson County Fire District 1.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at Paula.Hunt@soundpublishing.com
