South County Fire Numbers do questions during the annual presentation of the council

When the voters of Edmonds consider whether the city will be annexed in the South County Fire Regional Fire Authority (RFA) in April, firefighters gave their annual report in the city council of Edmonds on Tuesday evening.

The RFA and its predecessor Fire District 1 have provided fire and emergency services (EMS) in Edmonds since 2010. However, the RFA had a two-year cancellation clause for the 20-year contract, which is now in the run at the end of 2025. The city of Edmonds places an election measure on April 22nd on April 22, in which it is asked whether Edmonds of regional authority is a member Instead of climbing as a contractor, it should connect to cities such as Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and Brier.

As part of their contract, the officials must deliver an annual report to the city council. This year's report contained the number of fire and EMS calls in South County Fire, to which South County's fire reacted (6,334 in Edmonds and 38,676 system -wide). Most (84.1%) in Edmonds were for medical emergencies. Communication director Christie Veley also summarized the selection of other services that the agency offers from first aid training to the Community Resource Paramedic Program, which reduces 911 calls, right up to smoking mixing and lessons for strollers.

Then the fire chief Bob Eastman shared statistics for services provided by the response times (calculated from the time when the dispatchers receive a call when the units arrive on the scene) to the turnout (the time from the time when a Call is sent when the fireplace leaves the brand).

There was also a discussion about the usage factor for neighboring units (Nuuf). It measures the time in which EDMONS units react to research forms outside of Edmonds, and then compares this over time to react to the service in EDMONDS in non-Edmonds units.

As part of the contract, the remaining amount is reached if these two time amounts are within 10%. In 2021, however, South County Fire stated that the data reacted significantly more often to Edmonds when EDMONDS units reacted to neighboring cities such as Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace. As a result, the Council voted an additional 1.5 US dollar in 2021 for the payment of South County Fire. Millions annually to add an auxiliary car to improve the balance.

Although this Nuff returned to balance in recent years, Eastman said that in 2024 the diagram had an imbalance from the RFA transports in Edmonds – 239% – a strong increase compared to 92% in 2023. In the part of the contract, these figures would have to be 110% in order to be taken into account in the remaining amount.)

While the council members thanked for the important work that South County's fire does in the community, some questions about statistics that were shared on Tuesday evening had.

The member of the council asked Chen about the transport compensation factor, another diagram divided by Eastman, which showed that the number of entire transports – both in and outside the city – had been significantly reduced in the past three years. For example, Chen stated that the total transport was 1,035 in 2021; 1,389 in 2022; 1.143 in 2023 and 689 in 2024. A similar question was asked by Michelle Dotsch of the council members.

Eastman replied that a variety of variables could be involved, and added, “it is only a question of the waste of calls.” Another factor that could affect the number of transports, the Edmonds makes a bed opens so that they are approved. “So you have resources in the RFA that come in and cover for you [the waiting Edmonds paramedics] When they sit there, ”said Eastman.

Chen also asked how the RFA checked the costs and pointed out during the presentation that the RFA had recently bought a new ladder truck for 2 million US dollars.

The deputy fire chief Shayhn Maxwell found that the costs for fire engines have been updated in recent years and point out a recent report by the New York Times that “one or two conglomerates that have bought up all fire engines, and thus the entire Nation is fighting with the astronomical costs of the fire unit. “

Eastman added that these costs have started working with other agencies for both South County Fire as well as for neighboring countries and discussions about possible opportunities to share devices.

During the public commentary, Niall Mcshane said in Edmonds that he was surprised by the usage usage factor of the neighboring unit and called it “so far from the line that I think it has the city to really understand what in 2024 with this Metrik happened. We really have to get involved. “

You can view the RFA presentation to the Council on this link.

In other business offenders on Tuesday evening, the Council heard a presentation from the preliminary planning and development director Shane Hope, in which new state requirements in connection with the household were outlined by standards. It aims to remedy complaints about long and costly review processes in some communities, said Hope.

According to the new state law:

“Each construction review process must be integrated logically at the same time or in any other way, with the consolidated review and decision-making process for project permits. It may be more than a public discussion.” This means that the design test must be carried out at the same time than other checks – such as a location plan and a state environmental policy (SEPA) directions (SEPA -.

In addition, the rules must be clearly written so that applicants (and the public) know the design criteria that must be met.

The law requires that cities and counties can only apply “clear and objective development regulations for the exterior design of the new development”. Such a regulation:

– must determine at least one “determined guideline, standard or a criterion, on the basis of which an applicant can determine whether a certain building construction is permitted in accordance with this development regulation”; And

– cannot lead to a reduction in the “density, height, mass or scale under the generally applicable development regulations” for the proposed project in this zone.

For Middle Housing Projects, every design check must only be administrative. According to the law, “Administrative Design – Following” refers to a development permit procedure in which an application is approved, approved or rejected by the planning director or the representative of the planning director, which is based exclusively on objective design and development standards. A public hearing would not be necessary, unless such a review is necessary under the state or federal law in any other way, or the structure is a named landmark or a historical district that has been established according to a local preservation regulations. The law states that a city can apply public sessions, hearings or voluntary review committees in order to consider, recommend or approved inquiries about deviations from locally established construction review standards.

The city's employees will examine the options for the public in order to take this into account and comment. The Edmonds planning authority is also asked to check the matter as part of its advisory role for the Council, said Hope.

Code updates related to the new law are planned until June 30th.