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Camas-Washougal, WA Post-Record — A3Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black Weekday 1Cyan Magenta Yellow Black TUESDAY A3

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black TUESDAY A3

pire at the end of 2012, and Washougal Mayor Sean Guard said Monday the city isn’t likely to ask voters this year to renew. The remaining 50 cents of the EMS levy, which is at its statutory maximum, does not expire until the end of 2016.

Guard said Washougal will continue to fulfill its 35 cents per $1,000 obliga-tion to Camas, and at some point at the end of 2012 or early 2013 the Washougal City Council will be mak-ing some decisions about whether it will go out to voters in 2013 or 2014 to ask for another levy lid lift to support EMS services.

One major factor that will impact that decision is the amount of capacity left in the city’s overall tax rate.

“It is completely just a function of where that number comes in,” Guard said. “It will depend on whether it makes fiscal sense or not.”

Guard, who was part of the committee that worked on the Camas EMS levy rate proposal, said he un-derstands the rationaliza-tion behind the need for the recommended 11-cent increase.

“It’s a reality check of what the costs are to pro-vide that service in today’s world,” he said. “It is an aggressive proposal to say ‘this is what we need to keep this service going at this level.’”

Funding from the EMS levies can be used for purposes including ambu-lance services, purchase and maintenance of am-bulances, equipment and supplies, hiring and train-ing of firefighter/paramed-ics and IV technicians and administrative support personnel and training programs. It also supports the EMT training and re-certification of the volun-teer programs in Washou-gal and ECFR.

In addition, through the EMS levy partnership, four advanced life support ambulances are staffed 24 hours a day at three differ-ent stations in Camas and Washougal.

In recent years, the EMS fund has struggled financially primarily due to a decrease in assessed values. In the presentation to Camas City Council, Swinhart said a levy rate increase is “unavoidable.”

“The EMS levy has not kept up with inflation and the overall cost of doing business,” he said. “While call volume has increased 336 percent since 1979, the levy rate has increased just 40 percent. If the EMS levy had simply kept up with the cost of inflation, it would need to be over 70 cents per $1,000.”

The figures that form the basis for the recom-mendation are based on a scenario where each of the three entities are contrib-uting an amount equal to 46 cents per $1,000 of as-sessed value.

“The system works when everyone is equal,” Higgins said. “This as-

sumes everyone pays equally.”

But not all of the part-ners have bought in to the idea that more money should be handed over to support the EMS system.

ECFR Chief Scott Koehler said so far a ma-jority of his governing commissioners have not warmed to the proposal.

Some of the reasons for this stance, he said, in-clude the state of the econ-omy, opposition to tax in-creases voiced by residents of the district, and the fact that ECFR’s current levy isn’t scheduled to expire for two more years.

In addition, Koehler said it could cost the district anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000 to put the issue on the ballot. It’s an expense its elected officials have said they aren’t willing to absorb at this time.

“It would be our taxpay-ers funding the election,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like the best use of their money to ask them two years early whether they want higher taxes.”

Koehler said Swinhart is scheduled to talk to the ECFR Commission during its next meeting on Tues-day, April 2, at 7 p.m., at the Fern Prairie fire sta-tion.

“As partners in the am-bulance service, I wanted them to hear directly from Camas,” Koehler said. “We’ll hear what Camas has to say; we’d like to un-derstand their reasoning for the 11 cent increase. But for now, the consensus of the board is that we are going to wait and see what happens with the econo-my. In two years, we will have to go to the voters one way or another anyway.”

Swinhart said if any one of the partners decides not to put the issue in front of its voters, other options would need to be consid-ered.

“We know the system works well,” he said. “I think the best evidence of this was the recent recog-nition of Camas as being one of the top five fire de-partments/paramedic ser-vices in the United States when it came to cardiac arrest survival. If there are further funding chal-lenges due to one of the partners not asking their voters for an increase, we’ll have to explore out-side-the-box methods to ensure continuation of ser-vice.”

On Monday, the Camas City Council will vote on an ordinance that would put the proposed increase in front of Camas voters on the Aug. 7 ballot.

Swinhart said if current service levels are to be maintained, there are few alternatives other than raising the levy rate.

“We have the cheapest EMS levy in the county right now, and what I con-sider the highest level of service,” Swinhart said. “This can no longer be maintained.”

To view the EMS levy presentation made to City Council, visit www.camas postrecord.com

Continued from page A1

EMS levy

Hambleton site is located in the Port of C-W Industrial Park

By Dawn FelDhaus

Post-Record Staff

The owners of West Container Transport have purchased 10.25 acres in the Port of Camas-Wash-ougal Industrial Park.

The sale, announced Friday by Washougal Mayor Sean Guard, involved Gerald Breunig and his wife Diane Rohrbach.

The purchase price of the former Hambleton Lumber Sales, LLC

land was $1.825 million.“This site should not be confused

with the former Hambleton mill site near the marina,” Guard said.

Breunig and Rohrbach have al-ready leased most of the land at 520 S. 28th St., Washougal, to Na-tional Pipe & Piling, Inc.

National distributes steel prod-ucts that are used primarily in the construction of drive pile founda-tions. The company, which has been in business since 1984, fab-ricates, coats, galvanizes and coor-dinates the transportation of steel pipes and pilings to project sites.

A warehouse building remains available to lease.

Ron Kawamoto, associate vice

president of NAI Norris, Beggs & Simpson commercial real estate services, represented the seller of the property, VFC Properties 1, a subsidiary of First City Servic-ing Corporation. The property had been foreclosed in 2004 by Cowlitz Bank.

Kawamoto said the land’s attri-butes include access to rail.

“The site was available,” he said. “It is 10 acres of very flat, usable ground, and it was zoned properly [light industrial].”

Kawamoto said Breunig and Rohrbach were contacted about the land’s availability by a Norris, Beggs & Simpson broker, in Port-land.

Former lumberyard is purchased

Statement seeks consideration of local input

By Dawn FelDhaus

Post-Record Staff

The Washougal City Council has approved a resolution that urges sev-eral agencies to include potential impacts of in-creased rail traffic in the scope of an environmental impact statement.

The resolution, approved unanimously March 19, also requests project scop-ing and subsequent public hearings be held in Clark County, in addition to Washougal being made a party of record for each EIS process.

There are proposed rail terminal projects in What-com County and Cowlitz County. Each project is expected to significantly increase rail traffic in Washougal, according to city documents. The pro-posed freight is coal, but could potentially be other commodities.

Potential impacts of the increase in rail traffic list-ed in the resolution include additional traffic conges-tion and delays to resi-dents and commerce, as well as increased tail pipe emissions from stopped and idling vehicles. Poten-tial impacts from coal dust and other particulates that may be blown from open rail cars are also men-tioned.

In addition to Whatcom and Cowlitz counties, the State Department of Ecol-ogy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are involved in scoping and publishing environmental impact statements.

“We are not making as-sumptions about coal dust or traffic impacts,” Coun-cilman Paul Greenlee said prior to the vote. “They will find out.”

Proposals have been made by companies includ-ing Millennium Bulk Ter-minals that would involve the transport of coal from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming to terminals in Washington, where the product would be loaded onto barges and exported to Asia. Uncov-ered coal trains — esti-mated to be 20 to 30 per day — would need to pass through BNSF rail lines in Camas and Washougal.

Public concerns are heard

During public comments at the March 12 Wash-ougal Council workshop, Eleanor Warren, of Wash-ougal, spoke as a mother-to-be.

“The potential of 84,000 tons of coal dust annually is terrifying,” she said.

Marilyn Tyrrell, of Washougal, said the local area is already a dusty place, and the coal compa-nies should be required to cover or spray the coal to keep the dust down.

She wondered who per-forms quality control of the coal and “what’s in it for Washougal?”

Karen Burnham, a re-tired teacher, mentioned that Gause Elementary School is near railroad tracks. She found the thought of “kids on mon-key bars” while coal trains passed by, to be unsettling.

Joe Levesque, of Camas, acknowledged he was in the minority among the public speakers.

“I’ve seen the Sierra Club, over 50 years, creat-ing fear and anxiety,” he said. “I love the Gorge too.

“You need growth and opportunities,” Levesque added. “Don’t stop the growth.”

Washougal City Coun-cilman Dave Shoemaker thanked the mayor and city staff for crafting the resolution.

Shoemaker said he was

looking for evidence of sig-nificant amounts of coal dust and whether health problems can be docu-mented.

“I want studies, facts and proof — not opinion,” he said.

“I share your concerns,” Shoemaker said to the citi-zens in attendance. “I’m not sure how valid they are. I’m looking for evi-dence.”

City Administrator Da-vid Scott reminded council members that there would not be any Washougal deci-sions about the rail termi-

nal projects.“Growth will mean ad-

ditional traffic, and we will try to be involved.”

Mayor Sean Guard said he does not advocate against commerce.

“I do not want to derail the railroads,” he said. “I just want to make sure what is running through is safe.”

Camas approved a simi-lar resolution March 6.

To view the Washougal City Council resolution, click on this article at www.camaspostrecord.com.

Washougal Council approves rail traffic resolution

A father-daughter dance will help purchase farm stoves in Costa Rica.

The dance is set for Sat-urday, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the Jack, Will & Rob Boys and Girls Club, 2401 N.E. Ione St., Camas. It is de-signed for fathers and their daughters from kindergar-ten through middle school.

The cost to attend will be $20 total per father/daughter. The cost for ad-ditional daughters to at-tend will be $1 each. The price of admission will in-clude a memento photo and annual membership to the

JWR Center. Tickets will be available at the door.

Proceeds from the event will go to the Camas High School Interact Club. Dr. Robert Nicacio, club advi-sor, said the funds will be earmarked for an “ecos-tove” project organized by SeaChar.Org. The nonprof-it organization provides farm stoves for people in Third World countries.

Nicacio is hoping several students will want to trav-el to Costa Rica to install the stoves in December. For more information, con-tact him at 772-4561.

Father-daughter dance is Saturday

An American Red Cross blood drive is set for Thurs-day, at the Washougal Fire Station.

Donations can be made

from 1 to 6 p.m., in the training room, 1400 “A” St. For more information or to reserve a time, call 989-2932. Walk-ins are also welcome.

Blood drive to be held Thursday