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The South County Fire Board of Commissioners at its Tuesday meeting voted unanimously to move forward on a potential capital facilities bond measure of between $400 million and $450 million that would go before voters in November 2026.
According to a South County Fire news release, the bond would fund:
- Replacement of six aging fire stations.
- Necessary renovations and seismic upgrades at four fire stations.
- Construction of four additional fire stations to meet growing demand.
- Other facilities needs to support operations.
This plan follows more than a decade of strategic work to determine the community’s most important emergency response facility needs, South County Fire said. Preliminary estimates put the measure at between $400 and $450 million.
“Our community must have fire stations that allow firefighters to respond to your needs quickly and safely,” said Jim Kenny, South County Fire Board of Commissioners chair. “The longer we wait, the higher the price. We believe it’s time to go to our bosses – our taxpayers – and ask for their direction.”
The motion approved Tuesday directs Fire Chief Bob Eastman to prepare, plan and move toward presenting the bond measure to voters in November 2026. Work still remains to determine the final scope and cost of the plan, South County Fire said.
Well we in Edmonds don’t know yet what our initial bill for your services will be but we do know much more than we were paying. Now we’ll barely get hit with it only to find out that’s just the start! This is going to be a very rough year all the way around with everybody’s hands in our pockets to fulfill their wish lists. And still have the school levy to go .
Don’t know about anyone else but my head is spinning.
Hey, when you need 6 to 10 firemen and at least two trucks at every aid call, you need some nifty new and up to date buildings to house them in. Now they have to have more funds to fix up those old buildings that Mayor Rosen and your Council just gave them this year. Boy did Edmonds save a bunch of money going RFA. This would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic.
Jean, I agree with everything you have said. I don’t know how many people in our town will be able to continue “giving”. I have a wish list too, but I don’t see anyone helping me. My wish list includes that we all live within our means and stop asking for things we might want rather than things we need.
The RFA has the audacity to ask for $450 million when they mismanage taxpayers dollars and show no proof of running an efficient operation. Their economies of scale are non-existent. They just pump up their administrative costs every year well above COL. They don’t report any performance-based efficiencies. They don’t use performance metrics to improve their operation. They don’t organize to deliver dedicated paramedic services for the 85% of 911 calls that are for medical emergencies. They roll fire trucks rather than ambulances. They could save taxpayers tons of money if they had contract paramedic services – but that would mean they’d have to reduce firefighter staff and salaries. Can’t do that – since their #1 goal is to enhance firefighter salaries and retirement pay. We love our first responders, but not their excessive costs and wasted spending. $1 million per year in PR communications to tell us what a great job they’re doing? The whole RFA annexation was a charade perpetrated by the Mayor, CM Tibbott, and the rubber-stamp Council. Absolutely no justification to give away fire stations, increase 911 call costs from $1,900 per call to $3,230 per call, and double taxes. Edmonds should do proper due diligence to find a more cost effective way to manage and deliver fire/ems service and withdraw from the RFA.
Hopefully this article is ‘Onion Journalism’!
One word: INSANE!
How wonderful to see the insightful comments from the readers. Their ability to cut to the heart of every issue and find mismanagement and incompetence everywhere is a great comfort. Now, if only South County Fire and the City of Edmonds would pay attention, we could reduce property taxes to zero and all live happily ever after.
No way. SCF lives in some alternate reality. With some much need, this is not a priority.