by Elliott Wilson
BURLINGTON — Efforts to preserve the cooperative arrangement between the city’s fire department and the adjoining rural fire district gained ground Thursday night.
After a long and often argumentative session earlier this week, there was a sense of optimism emerging from a brief talk between the two parties Thursday.
“Walking out of here tonight, this is the best I have felt in getting close to an agreement,” Fire District 6 Commissioner Richard Whalen said after addressing the City Council Thursday night.
Whalen and council members both said Thursday that they would work together for a rate, paid to the city by the district, of $159,000 a year.
That number is yet to be attached to a contract, which would spell out how long the two jurisdictions were bound to work together among other details. But Whalen said in an interview following Thursday’s meeting that he would be speaking with City Attorney Scott Thomas today in hopes of getting a draft contract penned by Monday, when the Fire District 6 commissioners next meet.
Whalen said he hopes to vote on a contract on Monday.
The fire district, which surrounds Burlington north of the Skagit River, and city Fire Department have provided joint fire service for years and have continued to do so even though the last contract between them expired March 31. Should they not agree on a new contract, the city has said it will no longer automatically respond to district emergency calls.
Though the dollar amount of a new contract appeared nearly settled Thursday, other questions remained.
A letter from Fire District 6 delivered to the City Council Thursday stated that the district would pay the yearly rate of $159,000 for the next 18 months if a few conditions were met.
Thursday night, City Council members took aim at two of those conditions — that there would be no charge to hook the district’s Bayridge station up to the city sewer and that the two jurisdictions would hire a consultant to study how they might better work together.
“Sewer hook-ups have a value,” Councilman Bill Aslett said. “We cannot gift away public money.”
Whalen said in the interview that former City Administrator Jon Aarstad had suggested the sewer hook-up as a potential tradeoff in earlier negotiations. And as recently as Tuesday, Mayor Ed Brunz offered to waive the fee as part of another offer.
On the other condition, hiring a consultant, Whalen said it likely would not make or break a potential contract for him, but that it seems necessary to study options such as a regional fire authority or annexing the city into the district.
Councilman Garnor Bensen disagreed.
“If that is part of the contract, then I don’t want it,” he said.
Elliott Wilson can be reached at 360-416-2147 or at .
