Millwood Safe With Fire Program

I am writing to respond to the article (Valley Voice, March 4) regarding the Millwood Fire Department. It was, to say the least, a very slanted article.

Your article gives the impression that crews from Spokane County Fire District 1, also called the Valley Fire District, are working in our town all the time, when in fact last year we requested assistance only three times.

The Valley Fire District officials you quoted failed to mention, or you failed to report, that any other calls they answered in the town of Millwood were due to errors on the part of the central dispatch service. If they receive a dispatch for an address in the town and don’t refer the dispatcher to our department, is that mutual aid?

And speaking of mutual aid, why didn’t they talk about the times our personnel and equipment have given them mutual aid?

Our people were at Ponderosa and Newman Lake firestorms and we never sent them a bill.

One of our first calls for 1999 was mutual aid with Fire District 9. We didn’t send a bill, but their chief sent a nice letter of appreciation saying what a good job our people did. When Valley Fire needed one of our trucks for a grass fire, we sent it and never heard a word from them.

We have 21 members on our fire department for our town of one-square mile. Our calls are typically answered within three or four minutes. Our fire insurance rating is great and that rating is based on our equipment and training and on our ability to provide certain water pressure and flows. Our members are all well trained.

So, what is the real motivation here?

Last summer, the Valley Fire chief and a commissioner visited here and suggested that the town “join” the Valley Fire District.

As soon as they were aware that we had no such intentions, they stated they wanted to “help” us by providing some training for our volunteers. They stated again that they don’t want to “take over the town.”

In order for Millwood to be annexed to their district, our citizens would have to vote for that after the council agreed to a ballot issue.

If that happened, all of the property owners in the town would have to pay $2.70 per thousand dollars of the value of their property.

Imagine the “chunk of change” Valley Fire would receive for the valuation of the paper mill alone. “Our mill” is adding on and improving right now and the project total is $103 million by itself. That doesn’t include the value of the existing mill property.

And think of the value of the new development at Trent and Argonne in the town of Millwood.

The town of Millwood had had a mutual aid agreement for years and none of the other Valley Fire chiefs and commissions has had a problem.

I want to thank the chief and the members of our department for their dedicated service. I am so proud of you.

I want to assure the citizens of the town of Millwood that our fire department is operating professionally and efficiently and they need not be worried or frightened.

Our people are all very well trained. We have the funds to continue to provide training and keep our equipment up to date and in great working order without additional taxes. We are all quite safe.

Jeanne Batson is the mayor of Millwood.

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