Measure would fund new fire hall.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

JUNCTION CITY - If you build it, they will come ... firefighters, that is.

The Junction City Rural Fire Protection District - facing an increase in calls and a decrease in volunteers able to drop everything and respond to emergencies, sometimes several times a day - hopes to join the ranks of fire departments using free housing to attract live-in volunteers.

The district will float its first-ever bond measure Nov. 2 - seeking $2.5 million from voters - to build a new fire hall that would include living quarters for four "resident volunteers" to augment paid staff.

While arrangements vary from department to department, such volunteers generally receive a free room - or room and board - in exchange for being on duty at the fire hall certain hours or days.

It's a good deal for both sides, Junction City Fire Chief Carl Perry said.

"A lot of people want to be volunteers because they want careers in firefighting," he said. "Lane County District No. 1 has six resident volunteers, and they never have trouble filling the beds."

The Junction City district operates with four paid firefighters - including Perry - and 35 volunteers who muster in from their homes or workplaces when a fire, accident or medical emergency occurs. The district includes Junction City and surrounding rural areas that stretch from the Willamette River to the Coast Range.

Perry said the city is outgrowing its 4,000-square-foot fire hall, built in 1960 for a municipal fire department that served a population of less than 1,500. Since then, Junction City proper has tripled in size and its city fire department has merged with the Junction City Rural Fire Protection District. The department now serves about 10,000 people.

The character of the community also has changed in ways that make reliance on volunteers increasingly difficult. In 1960, many area residents still worked locally in Junction City mills and other businesses. Today, more residents commute to jobs in Eugene or Corvallis.

The number of fire calls also has increased to the point that employers no longer can tolerate disruptions of employees leaving multiple times a day. When Perry joined the department as a volunteer in 1975, the department averaged 300 calls a year.

Today, it's closer to 1,000 calls a month - 80 percent of them medical emergencies in an increasingly elderly community.

"We know it's a lot of money, but we've never asked for a bond before," Perry said. "And I'd like the voters to understand that we need to do this if we're going to maintain the level of service we have now, given the increase in population that will come with all the development going on."

The practice of providing living quarters began decades ago in sparsely populated but geographically sprawling fire districts of the Midwest. To ensure overnight staffing at their fire halls, such districts would assign volunteers to sleep overnight at the firehouse, said Marty Nelson, chief of Veneta-based Lane County Fire District No. 1.

Resident volunteers, by contrast, live full time at the fire hall, sleeping there every night whether or not they're on duty. Many come with considerable training and experience, as either students or graduates of college paramedic or firefighting programs.

Under industry standards, fire departments must provide such residents with at least a semiprivate sleeping area and bathroom facilities.

"You can no longer just throw a cot on the floor," Perry said.

In Lane County, the Goshen Fire District was the first to adopt the system - a natural fit, given that the district includes Lane Community College with its two-year paramedic and EMT program.

Goshen has had a resident volunteer program for more than 20 years, said Chief Randy Wood, who started his own firefighting career as a "sleeper" in a similar program in Monmouth.

"We started it so we would have personnel around, particularly on the weekends," he said. "It puts people here at the station to take equipment right out, so you get a little quicker response."

The Goshen district operates with two full-time staff and three resident volunteers, in addition to 22 other volunteers.

Bill Paulus, a 1998 South Eugene High School graduate, is one of Goshen's three current "sleepers" - though the nickname seems inappropriate. The residents are expected to work during their duty shifts, even when no alarms come in.

Paulus completed the LCC paramedic program in 2002 and hopes the experience he gains as a resident volunteer will help him achieve his goal of landing a paid firefighter/paramedic position in the Eugene-Springfield area.

"I'm getting a lot of good firefighting and medical experience," the 24-year-old said. "And I've started building a lot of connections by meeting people from other districts through training.

"There are three of us, so every third day we are responsible to be here, go on calls and clean the station," he said. "Since we live and sleep here, a lot of times when we're off duty, we respond anyway. But it's a pretty good trade, because we're getting free room and utilities, and experience. This is a competitive field to get hired in."

FIRE BOND MEASURE

Voters will consider a new fire hall for the Junction City Rural Fire Protection District on Nov. 2

Size: 16,660 square feet, including 8,500-square foot apparatus bay on 2.5 acres between Magnolia and Juniper streets behind the Safeway store at the north end of town

Cost: $2.5 million over 10 years

Tax rate: 62 cents per $1,000 assessed property valuation

Sample impact: $93 per year on a $150,000 home

CAPTION(S):

Junction City's new firehouse, as depicted by an artist, would include living quarters for four resident volunteer firefighters.