Fire district board vows to make merger work.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 1/21/05): South Lane Fire District North Battalion Chief Paul Furrer was referred to by the wrong first name in a story on Page B1 Thursday.

CORRECTION (ran 1/25/05): The South Lane County Fire & Rescue District will hold a nonpublic executive session at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the headquarters station, 233 E. Harrison Ave., in Cottage Grove. The incorrect date was given in an article on Page B3 on Jan. 20.

COTTAGE GROVE - In a meeting room jammed with concerned residents and firefighters, the South Lane Fire District Board took concrete steps Wednesday night toward healing a rift between its northern and southern constituencies, voting to seek bids for a new Creswell firetruck and to hold every third meeting in Creswell.

District Fire Chief Dan Olsen assured audience members that, "contrary to rumors, there has never, ever been any statement that the engine would go to anywhere but Creswell." The new engine, a replacement for a $290,000 pumper lost during an August wildfire near the Short Mountain landfill, is designed to fight both building and wildfires.

A report on the Aug. 18 incident by Olsen sparked angry reactions from some Creswell firefighters and residents, who say he is "driving a wedge" between the district's north and south divisions. Several more spoke up Wednesday night to blast Olsen's report as an unfair attack on their North Battalion chief, Don Furrer. He was also chief of the Creswell Fire District before area districts consolidated 19 months ago. They also took offense to a section of the report criticizing the district's North Battalion as ineffective and sometimes reckless.

"When I'm told that my firefighters are reckless, and 'not as effective as they believe themselves to be,' ... that kind of statement made in public is never going to heal. It's going to fester," said Creswell resident Mark Johnson. "It's unfortunate that a wedge is being driven, but it's being driven hard and deep."

Olsen read a statement at the beginning of the meeting expressing his "sincere regret" that the report was made public after members of the news media requested it under state public records law after a Creswell firefighter angrily quoted from it at the board's December meeting.

"I deeply regret the embarrassment this has caused Paul Furrer, his family and all the members of this fire department," he said, adding, "my comments, which have been widely quoted as being derisive to North Division volunteers ... at no place in the report did I make reference to the character or integrity of the volunteer members."

Bob Millam, battalion chief of the Creswell-area volunteers, said they were "making a big effort to be positive here and attempt to work things out. We need to band together and work together to get through this."

Board Chairman Steve Allen reiterated the board's commitment to "making the district merger work." He also announced that the board would meet in a nonpublic, executive session next Tuesday to discuss complaints against Olsen.