Budget needs for the police and fire departments, along with street and code enforcement requests for 2018, were presented to the Ocean Shores City Council meeting Monday night.
Meanwhile, the council also temporarily tabled a proposal to strengthen city laws to make it easier to deal with chronic neighborhood nuisances, agreeing the wording needed closer review before it appears on the next agenda.
As a result, Monday’s session focused more on the budget needs of some of the key public safety providers.
For code enforcement, the 2018 budget likely will include funds for a part-time addition to the full-time officer so the city can be staffed with an enforcement officer seven days of the week, Mayor Crystal Dingler said.
The capital part of the police budget will drop some, she noted, because the city currently is paving the parking lot outside of the police department — a project that has been put off over several budget cycles as the potholes and problems got bigger.
The 2017 budget included $63,533 to repair the existing parking lot, and the City Council recently accepted a construction bid from Rognlin’s Inc. to do the work for $72,352 along with $8,300 for construction management services.
Dingler said the Police Department in 2018 will not seek additional staff, with a current budget that allows for three more positions that have yet to be filled.
“We’re in the position where we actually have more positions than we have people” to fill them, Dingler said of the dilemma in finding qualified and trained officers. “We are eating up a lot of the money allocated for those positions in overtime.”
Aside from finding a way to pay for the seven firefighters hired two years ago under a two-year federal grant, Fire Chief David Bathke also has a request for some key equipment needs.
The city recently finished paying off its large ladder fire truck, and Bathke requested the amount budgeted be left in the 2018 spending plan to begin to “replace our aging fleet.” He estimated the equipment could be financed and purchased with another $616,000 loan.
“We are doing what we can with what we have, but some of the stuff is deemed unsafe from a fire aspect,” Bathke said.
Three of the city’s current fire vehicles “actually qualify for collector plates at this time and they are front-line pieces of equipment,” Bathke said. With three type-1 engines, one is 38 years old, and another is 22 years old.
The goal would be to have two of those type engines, along with another smaller engine that could be used to fight fires in the dunes “where we can respond off the road with a pump and an engine, but it also could be used for structures as well.”
The first-year Ocean Shores Fire Chief also would like a command-response truck, and modifications of the South Station and its training facilities. The other need is to replace an emergency generator with a corroded housing.
Looking forward for EMS needs, the chief said the goal is to replace an ambulance in late 2018, as well as the need to purchase two additional heart monitors and additional power gurneys.
“My goal is to keep the payments the same or less than what they have been, while also replacing those capital items,” Bathke said of how the requests would be paid for over time.
Other items expected to be in the 2018 budget for Public Works include:
• A request to start a three-year savings program for the purchase of another used garbage truck for the city in 2020.
• Funding for another spring cleanup, and $20,000 rolled over from the 2017 budget for parking lot improvements at Damon Point.
• A Parks request to remove the tennis court at North Bay Park, along with an irrigation system modification.
• A seasonal employee for Public Works.
• Roadside vegetation control, beach approach rock, and replacement of the downed street light on Chance a la Mer.
• Asphalt repairs on streets identified by the city as having the most need of repair in a pending study.
• A $10,000 request for shoulder rock alongside streets and a conveyor to assist in the placing.
Wastewater Treatment award
The city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant crew earned full compliance recently and was honored by Bird with the presentation of an “Outstanding Performance Award” for 2016 from the state Department of Ecology at Monday night’s meeting. The staff included Barry Forvour crew chief, James Johnson, and Carola Yegge.
“We feel happy that we can provide this service reasonably, economically and efficiently,” Forvour said. “Our real job is protecting the waters of Washington and that’s what we are charged with. We take it very seriously and we try to do a good job.”
Forvour said it was the 13th award for Ocean Shores for perfect compliance, which puts the city in the top 8 percent in the state.
Of those, he noted, Ocean Shores also has the second lowest sewer rates.
