Voters said “yes.” Now, just three months after the city opened that station at 3525 Stoll Road, statistics show that emergency responders are living up to the campaign promise.
Last year, it was taking first responders 10 minutes and 46 seconds to respond to 9 out of 10 calls for help in District 4 – the Lilly Road area. In a survey of response times from June 14 through Sept. 14 this year, firefighters cut their time in half, to an average of 5 minutes and 36 seconds in the district.
In some emergency situations – especially heart attacks – that five-minute difference will spell the difference between life and death. It’s clear Olympia residents on the city’s east side are getting what they paid for.
Voters approved the property tax increase in the August 2008 primary election with a 68.8 percent favorable vote. With their approval, voters agreed to increase property taxes citywide by up to $16.5 million to build and equip the fire station and construct a fire training center at 1305 Fones Road. The fire station opened in June, and the training facility is scheduled to open next month.
Then last year when the economic recession hit hard, city officials went back to the voters with a second property tax ballot measure, this time to hire the 16 firefighters necessary to staff the fire station.
In the August primary election, a resounding 65.14 percent of the voters said “yes” to the tax increase.
Both elections were strong validation of the importance city voters place on emergency services and the importance of well-staffed fire stations to protect the community.
Before the vote, Fire Chief Larry Dibble said the new station would reduce response times in the eastside district. He and other city officials said they thought they could get the magic number to less than 6 minutes – the national standard.
“We promised the voters we’d be able to do this, and it played out in the way it was designed,” Dibble said.
It will take a full year of data – not just the first three months – to make an accurate assessment.
It’s clear that the next challenge is Olympia’s west side, where the single fire station has actually seen its response times increase – primarily because of the volume of calls. The response times there and in the heart of Olympia are now above 7 minutes.
Anecdotally, the quicker response time from Station 4 is obvious to those who call for assistance on the eastside.
Mark Ramstad, general manager for Merrill Gardens on Lilly Road, said he’s noticed a difference since the new station opened. Ramstad manages the retirement and assisted living home, which has 86 residents who average 85 years old. He says the Fire Department is called on a weekly basis.
In fact, firefighters are routinely called to help patients who have fallen in assisted living and nursing homes.
Firefighters responded quickly before, “but this definitely, I would say, has knocked it in half,” Ramstad said.
Firefighters and city officials stake a bit of their reputation on every ballot proposition. They are promising results in exchange for “yes” votes, whether it’s to build a new fire station or library, improve bike paths or sidewalks, or acquire property for a park.
Future success with voters in any city largely depends on a city’s ability to deliver on their campaign promises.
In the case of Olympia’s new fire station and a reduction in response times on the east side, the city has delivered and voters should take note.
