Hindsight handy for next biker rally
Washington State Patrol officials were in a can’t-win situation when it came to planning for a motorcycle rally in Rosalia last August.
If they’d been unable to handle any trouble when 10,000 cyclists rolled into the Whitman County town of 627, the agency would have been open to criticism. Yet, if the Patrol invested $225,000 to bring emergency response resources from all over the state for an activity as uneventful as an Elks picnic – which is what happened – the agency would be, well, open to criticism.
Or at least open to questions, such as those now being posed by some state legislators who have scratched below the surface of a budget item labled merely “fire mobilization.”
In retrospect, nearly a quarter-million dollars seems extravagant. Some 125 medics and firefighting personnel and 57 emergency rigs were sent from as far as Pierce County, racking up as much as $90 an hour in overtime pay and thousands to have fire engines and rescue vehicles on hand. More than $10,000 was paid for carry-out meals for the standby crews.
And stand by, they did. They handled a dehydration case, a drunk and a motorcycle accident – incidents that could have been handled by hired security personnel and local agencies.
From logs kept by the well-paid crews, it sounds like a ho-hum experience. One entry reads: “Manager or employee of staging facility stopped in. They looked at the fire truck with his two boys. I gave them some mood pencils.”
Still, nobody knew what to expect as the “Hundred Years of Motorcycles” rally approached. It was harvest time in a dry Palouse setting with undeniable potential for a serious fire incident in the event of, say, a carelessly dropped cigarette. And let’s not kid ourselves that the image of a conglomeration of bikers roaring down on Rosalia didn’t conjure Hell’s Angel nightmares and make bureaucratic stomachs churn.
If the event in question had really been the aforementioned Elks picnic, it’s unlikely the State Patrol would have amassed a similar level of preparedness.
Curiously, Patrol Chief John Batiste says the $225,000 expenditure has “zero impact” on his budget. State lawmakers, make a note.
In hindsight, last summer’s motorcycle rally was unthreatening, while giving Rosalia’s struggling economy a needed boost. It even gained the community some national media exposure, and a follow-up event is anticipated next year.
By then, Patrol officials should have a more realistic idea of what to prepare for, and while the potential persists for more serious incidents, there’s something to be said for a staged response in which nearby units are alerted and on call if needed, but costly public resources aren’t squandered.
Equally important, a little truth in packaging is in order when it comes to accounting for whatever expenditure is incurred. “Fire mobilization” is a misleading way to describe biker anxiety.