Emergency dispatch issue arises in Creswell.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

CRESWELL - A new city councilor says it's time to deal with long-smoldering resentments over allocation of South Lane County Fire & Rescue District resources.

Councilor David Case said information that surfaced during a discussion of public safety at a recent Creswell City Council retreat has injected new urgency into the debate.

He said fire district plans to contract with Cottage Grove for all dispatch services will leave Lane County sheriff's deputies who provide Creswell's police service on a different frequency from firetrucks and ambulances. Case said the issue is important because police and fire district personnel often respond to the same incidents.

Sgt. Clifton Harrold, who supervises the deputies, confirmed the radio incompatibility issue, but stressed that the sheriff's office takes no position on South Lane's dispatch decision.

Harrold said Cottage Grove fire dispatchers can simply push a button to patch Cottage Grove police into fire and rescue calls there, but have no such ability with county deputies in the Creswell area. If a fire or ambulance crew requested law enforcement response to a Creswell crash or fire, he said, Cottage Grove dispatchers would have to relay the request to sheriff's office dispatchers. Operators there would then radio deputies with information about the emergency.

South Lane Fire Board President Mike Fleck said the board's Jan. 3 vote to contract all its 2007-08 dispatch services with Cottage Grove was a tentative one, depending in part on tests of pager signal strength in the Creswell area. But the board, faced with budget cuts after voters resoundingly rejected a local option levy in November, has a strong incentive to consolidate dispatch services, he said: Doing so would save an estimated $60,000 a year.

Harrold said the primary radio in county patrol cars and the portable radios deputies wear on their shoulders are UHF. He noted, however, that a sheriff's office technician told him the VHF used by Cottage Grove Fire dispatch could be added to a second, VHF radio in deputies' patrol cars.

"I think that no matter which way this is resolved, it can be worked out," he said of the dispatch dispute. He added that all Willamette Valley public safety agencies are working toward making all their radio systems compatible.

Case said the radio issue is just one more example of what many Creswell residents see as second-class treatment by the Cottage Grove-based fire district, created in a 2003 merger. Residents are also upset about 24/7 staffing at the Cottage Grove headquarters fire station, while the Creswell station is only manned from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, he said.

There is also no Creswell-based ambulance service, he said. And under the district's at-large voting system, all five members of the board are from the Cottage Grove area, even though Creswell represents about one-third of the fire district population.

He said Creswell residents are upset enough that the City Council directed its public safety subcommittee - Case and fellow councilors Tim Demanett and Alan Brown - to hold a couple of community forums this week to discuss the matter.

"We want to encourage public participation so we can get a little closer to understanding the problems with the fire district," he said. "Then we will report back to the full council, possibly in a special work session, with our findings and a possible recommendation."

He said some residents - a dozen or more - are convinced that it's time to dissolve the district.

"I see people waving their arms and stomping their feet, saying this was a big mistake to begin with, we want it back like it was before, when we had our own fire department," he said.

But what he called "de-merger" is not a simple process - particularly in Lane County, where the boundary commission must sign off on any such dissolution.

And he said he's encouraged by Fleck's willingness to consider middle-ground solutions, such as possibly basing ambulance services at the district Station 2 in Saginaw between Cottage Grove and Creswell.

PUBLIC SAFETY FORUM

A Creswell City Council subcommittee seeks community opinions about fire and rescue services

When: 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday

Where: Creswell Community Center, 99 S. First St.

Who: Interested residents of Creswell and larger South Lane Fire District