After nearly three months with an unstaffed volunteer fire department, the city of Cosmopolis has taken a step toward rebuilding.

Effective Jan. 1, all members of the Cosmopolis Volunteer Fire Department resigned due to irreconcilable differences with Mayor Kyle Pauley and some members of the Cosmopolis City Council. The city has since appointed ​​Mark Tarabochia as Cosmopolis Fire Chief, which was unanimously confirmed by the Cosmopolis City Council at the March 16 City Council meeting.

Tarabochia, who purchased property in Cosmopolis with his wife in 2017 and moved following his retirement, has a long history of firefighting service. He spent more than 30 years firefighting in the Bellingham area, including 14 years as Fire Commissioner with Skagit County Fire District 14 in Alger.

Despite his experience, the start to his tenure will not be easy, as the city hunts for willing fire department volunteers.

“The first and most important item on my list as the new Chief is to try and work with our responders that resigned and get some, or all, of them back on board so that we can staff fire and aid response for our citizens,” said Tarabochia in a press release sent by Pauley on Monday, March 21.

“I realize the work, time, and effort they put in over the years for our citizens and I do not want to see that swept under the rug. I am certain through my reaching out to them that they feel the same way.”

Pauley hopes that Tarabochia’s leadership will encourage former members of the volunteer fire department to return, despite the fact that Pauley will still remain in charge and previously refused a proposal made by the Cosmopolis Volunteer Fire Association that they would return should he step down.

“He (Tarabochia) is currently the only staff member of the Cosmopolis Volunteer Fire Department, but that should change shortly,” he said. “There’s been a number of former firefighters who have expressed interest in coming back, but they’ve made it very clear that they aren’t interested in coming back if I’m the one at the helm leading that search.”

According to Pauley, he intends to take a more hands-off approach with the fire department in the future in order to avoid the personality conflicts of the past.

“I want to bridge the gap, restart, rebuild, and build fresh. It’s clear that myself and some of the leadership didn’t see eye to eye. I don’t know if that’s my leadership style or how they prefer to receive communication, but I’ve tried to do a little training to make myself better with different groups,” he said.

And the time to rebuild is nigh. Cosmopolis has been covered by the Aberdeen Fire Department since Jan. 1, but according to Pauley, the price of that contract has gone up “quite drastically in cost.”

Per his request and the desire of the city, Tarabochia will begin an approximately six month probationary period as Cosmopolis Fire Chief. For the first time, the position will include a stipend as the Fire Chief embarks on the additional effort of rebuilding the department.

“After the resignation we started to do public record requests, going through documents. There’s so many things that need to be updated and adjusted in addition to the rebuilding of the department,” said Pauley. “We had talked about a stipend, and once the budget allowed for it, we decided to put it in. That would’ve gone in no matter who the Fire Chief was.”

Pandemic-induced budgetary constraints contributed to altercations between Pauley and former Fire Chief Cody Bridges, who was removed by Pauley from his position in May 2021, and then from the fire department altogether in July 2021.

Thanks to American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and a rebounding economy, Cosmopolis is more financially sound and able to relax cuts on various departments.

“We’re more stable and able to bring back a number of things, including meals,” said Pauley. “Any cuts we made have been returned, and there’s nothing that’s outstanding or waiting for the budget to come back.”

That being said, Pauley still anticipates a fair amount of start-up costs should the department return to adequate staffing levels.

“Rebuilding a department is going to take some costs, we’ll have to get some new gear if we get new volunteers in. The rest of the city will have to hold off on their issues while we do this, but the safety of the city and its residents comes first,” he said.