Since 2019, North Lincoln Fire and Rescue (NLFR) and Depoe Bay Rural Fire Protection District have been working toward a potential consolidation or merger of the two districts.
However, the idea of the proposed nine station fire district with a new Board of Directors and Fire Chief slowly began to fade away over the past year, and has now dissolved completely.
On Thursday March 4, members of the NLFR Board of Directors attended an oversight committee meeting with Depoe Bay Fire and Chief Bryan Daniels. The main topic of the meeting was the NLFR bond money that would be included in the consolidation process, NLFR Board of Directors President Alan Lee said at the March 10 NLFR meeting.
Lee said that NLFR officials spoke during the meeting and Depoe Bay Fire asked several questions and raised their own concerns. Eventually, both sides agreed that they needed a firm vote from Depoe Bay Fire on whether or not they would contribute to NLFR bonds.
Lee said during Depoe Bay’s meeting last week, they voted not to recognize or contribute to those bonds. After hearing that, NLFR officials decided to vote on whether or not they wanted to dissolve the consolidation agreement completely.
North Lincoln Fire Chief Rob Dahlman explained to the Board that without an agreement, North Lincoln would be faced with a larger increase in taxes than Depoe Bay would through the merger. In that situation, Dahlman said he didn’t see the benefit of consolidation for them.
“We know that we cannot sell that to our voters, saying ‘hey let’s consolidate, but we’ll pay more.’ That just doesn’t pencil out,” Chief Dahlman said.
A motion was then made to dissolve the ORS 190 agreement between the two fire districts, an intergovernmental agreement between two or more public agencies that seek to foster efficiency and economy by promoting the use of existing resources, as well as a motion not to pursue any further consolidation.
“It’s got to be equal between Depoe Bay and us and I don’t feel that it is,” NLFR board member Danny Curler said. “They want everything and don’t want to give anything.”
Also during the NLFR meeting, the board completed an agenda of discussion topics planned during a joint meeting with the Lincoln City City Council.
Among the topics include the new urban renewal district, the tsunami siren warning system, fire code issues, what services NLFR provides for the City of Lincoln City and vice versa, as well as the updates on the Echo Mountain Complex fire. The meeting is scheduled for April 5 at 6 p.m. and will be available for viewing on the city’s website.
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