Another extension granted on RFD1 fire agreement

A final two-week extension has been made to the city of Havre's agreement to provide fire suppression services to Rural Fire District 1 as the RFD1 Board and the city appear to have finally made progress on a new contract.

Rural Fire District 1 is essentially a ring around Havre in which the Havre Fire Department previously provided fire suppression services.

The city in December announced it would cancel the previous contract effective at the end of June to enable writing another contract which delegated responsibility for enforcing fire codes in the district.

Havre Mayor Tim Solomon has said there are buildings in RFD1 that are being built with fire code violations and they need someone local to handle enforcement of these codes.

The board and the city failed to reach a new agreement by the original deadline, leaving Rural Fire District 1 unprotected, at least on paper. After the deadline passed, Solomon gave an extension which would have run out July 15 but was then extended through the end of July and and again to the end of August.

Fire code enforcement has been the main issue keeping a new agreement from being reached. The board had previously asked Solomon for more time to research the issue and then to find and get a person properly trained, as well as research the ramifications of appointing such a person.

This week their attorney sent the attorney representing Havre an email saying the district was staying with the previous agreement that didn't address fire code enforcement.

Tuesday night at midnight the Havre Fire Department was no longer providing fire suppression to the rural fire district around the edge of Havre.

Havre Mayor Tim Solomon said Wednesday morning staying with the previous agreement is a nonstarter..

"We've already told them that's not acceptable to us," Solomon said.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said Wednesday morning that he and Hill County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Amanda Frickel met with the fire chiefs of the Bear Paw Voulenteer Fire Department, Wildhorse Rural Fire Department and the Kremlin Rural Fire Department to see if they could cover RFD1.

At Wednesday's meeting all three chiefs and Frickel showed up to voice their concerns about this arrangement which they said was dangerous to the people of RFD1 and themselves.

Bear Paw Volunteer Fire Department Fire Chief Josh Bebee said his department is trained and equipped for wild land fires, not structural fires and asking them to take this on is unfair and this conflict needs to get sorted out now.

"We are not equipped to enter that (burning) building, we're not trained to do any of that, and I'll be damned if I'm going to send or ask any of my guys to ever go into a structure when it is not safe," Bebee said. "We're wild land. If you guys have got wildfires, we'll gladly put them out, gladly, and as far as structures go if the city keeps doing them we'll gladly supply water to them, but the liability and what is being asked of these rural departments, we can't do it. You guys got people's lives on the line ... I don't know how we end this crap, but it needs to end, we need to figure this out."

He said this arrangement effectively puts him in the position of either turning his back on RFD1 residents or his firefighters and their families.

"If it's a fire chief that is needed for Rural 1, why can't we put a job application out?" he said. "... We're not playing with Legos here, these are people's lives, and it's not fair."

Wildhorse Rural Fire Department Chief Shawn Rismon echoed Bebee's concerns and also brought up the matter of response time.

"I mean, my closest truck is 16 miles away, granted that truck is usually in my back pocket most of the time, but that's 16 miles," he said.

Kremlin Rural Fire Department Chief Kody Peterson said much the same.

Frickel, who attended Wednesday night's meeting virtually, went further, saying she supports the chiefs and believes putting all of this on them is irresponsible, and the way in which the matter was handled, effectively dumping the responsibility in their laps in a meeting Tuesday night was absolutely not OK.

"It was not professional in any manner at all," she said.

Frickel said this impasse needs to be resolved and a solution found.

"If you're just saying, Mr. Solomon, that all we need is a fire chief and you'll come to terms with the agreement, then let's find a fire chief, if that's all it's going to take," she said.

RFD1 Board Chair Steve Jamruszka said the board needs more time to research the ramifications of appointing a fire chief, and have concerns about the cost hiring someone.

Board member Courtney Tait said Jamruszka has spent hundreds of hours researching the topic and the board needs more time.

"I'm not at a point right now that I'm willing to make a commitment. ... I can't give you a contract without knowing what's going to be in the contract," Jamruszka said.

Solomon responded by saying it shouldn't take that long and the city can't just keep putting the matter off with extension after extension.

"We've told you what needs to be in the contract, it's been the same thing all along, we just want some enforcement. ... It doesn't take a whole lot of research for that, that's my problem. You keep dragging this out and ignoring the problem for the citizens out there. At some point it's gotta come to an end," he said.

He said state law dictates that Rural Fire Districts need to, one way or another, provide fire suppression and fire code enforcement to their district, and the city's demand for that code enforcement is ultimately for the sake of RFD1 residents and fire fighters who will be put in danger if codes are not enforced, a demand that has been effectively ignored.

Jamruszka said Solomon is making it sound like inspections and enforcement are not going on at all, and said they are already being done by the state, just not to Solomon's liking.

Solomon said there are known violations the city has been asking to be addressed for years to no avail, as the state mostly handles inspections, not enforcement.

RFD1 Board members also brought up their concerns about their ability to pay a fire chief.

Tait said the district doesn't have a lot of money to work with and finding and hiring someone would be difficult.

Jamruszka also said they won't be able to hire someone right away due to the difficulty in finding someone.

Solomon said the city's position hasn't been contingent upon getting someone hired, merely a commitment from the board that they would find someone to handle enforcement.

"All that the city has asked for, for the last three years, we've been to meetings with this board, with the past board, and asked for some enforcement along with suppression," he said.

Solomon said he's given out numerous ideas for how the board could handle the enforcement of fire codes including appointing a fire chief, contracting those responsibilities to the city, or providing that authority to the county fire warden.

He said any one of those solutions would solve the immediate problem, though he favors the appointment of a fire chief as it would solve a number of other issues the board has.

He said the city would be willing to do the work of the fire chief as long as the person doing it gets paid properly for their time.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean and the RFD1 board members claim those alternatives to a fire chief were never presented to the board, but Solomon said he did so several times in previous meetings, and said there are viable options as long as the board is willing to pay whomever takes on those responsibilities.

Solomon said most of the responsibilities of the fire chief under the agreement between the board and the city are already contracted out the anyway, and their only major responsibility is to enforce fire codes.

Havre Fire Chief Mel Paulson said the RFD1 fire chief would spend most of their time making phone calls to the state which handles the bulk of the work anyway.

"You know, sometimes they don't know that buildings are going up, so it's a matter of someone notifying them," Paulson said.

He said if the state fire marshal can't respond to a code enforcement situation the fire chief would be responsible for it, but for the most part the fire chief just helps the state do its job.

Solomon said, collectively, this is not a tremendous amount of work considering there are only a few major violations a year, and depending on how the board handles it, it wouldn't cost all that much money.

"$100 a month, and don't tell me you don't have that," he said.

Solomon said he would need to do some research to provide more exact figures on what a fire chief would cost, but he could probably have them by the end of today as long as he has a commitment from the board that they will, one way or another, get someone local to enforce the fire codes.

He said even if the position ends up being more expensive than anticipated, the district can use the money they have to cover one to several years of the fire chief's pay, giving them the time needed to go to the voters and ask for what they need in levies to cover the position permanently.

Tait asked Solomon what happens when the voters say no.

Solomon replied that's something they may need to deal with, and is a reality of local government.

Rismon suggested that when they advertise for the position it may be prudent to describe the duties of the job and make it clear that its not really a leadership position like his or Paulson's.

He said when he heard RFD1 was possibly looking for a fire chief he assumed it was a job analogous to his and it may be a good idea for them not to advertise the position as fire chief just to make sure they don't scare anyone off.

Solomon said that is a good suggestion but ultimately immaterial without a commitment from the board that they would work toward getting someone local to take care of fire code enforcement.

After a tense meeting Solomon offered an extension to the current fire agreement as long as the board made that commitment.

The extension was initially proposed to be 30 days long, but a member of the audience, a resident of RFD1 who would not identify herself, said she's had enough 30-day extensions and she wants this issue resolved immediately so she and her fellow residents can stop worrying about whether or not they're going to have fire suppression services.

The board and Solomon agreed on an extension to Sept. 15 and Jamruszka said this will be the final extension.

Frickel and Kody Peterson offered to enforce fire codes during those two weeks while the city and board working things out and Solomon said he'd be happy with that as long as they had the board's blessing, which was eventually given.