Reflecting the passage of a levy lid lift in August that authorized Vashon Island Fire & Rescue to increase its collection of property taxes, the district’s board of commissioners passed a 2024 budget that includes that extra revenue on Nov. 27.

The budget, viewable here, also reflects the goals of the district’s arching strategic plan, developed in collaboration with a national consultancy and input from community stakeholders earlier in 2023.

The strategic plan, viewable here, called for increased staffing, substantial upgrades to the district’s aging fleet, and enhancements of services to islanders including the re-opening of the Burton Fire Station — an achievement that took place in early November.

By the numbers

With revenues and expenses matching at approximately $10.5 million, the 2024 budget includes $1.8 million in cash carried from the general fund from 2023 — and calls accordingly for $2 million to be carried over to 2025. This carryover cash enables the district to fund operations until tax revenue from 2024 begins to arrive in its coffers.

Tax revenues of approximately $6.6 million, up from close to $5.6 million in 2023, make up the bulk of the revenue of the budget, with $770,000 in federal dollars also to be received by the district.

The federal funds most substantially include $730,000 coming from the Ground Emergency Medical Transportation (GEMT) Program, which provides supplemental payments to close the gap between the district’s actual costs and amounts received from transporting Washington Apple Health (Medicaid) patients.

Before 2023, the district had not participated in the program, despite its eligibility to do so.

Federal funds also include a first-time $36,000 FEMA Assistance Grant to Firefighters to replace heavy-duty washing machines owned by the district — a necessary improvement to better remove carcinogens from firefighters’ protective equipment and gear, said Fire Chief Matt Vinci.

The grant will also be used to help train firefighters on cancer prevention.

Another new program for the district, Mobile Integrated Health (MIH), will bring in $48,500 more in revenue generated by the already existing King County EMS Levy.

This revenue will be augmented by approximately $45,000 more in expenses budgeted by the district to implement MIH — a program that will provide regular home visits to vulnerable and high-need islanders.

The total costs of the MIH program will include salaries for a part-time registered nurse being hired to work on the program; the program’s medical director, who will work remotely, and a program manager who will schedule visits to islanders referred by the district and perform other administrative duties.

“We’re really energized to get MIH going,” said Vinci — describing how the preventative program will serve patients with a wide variety of needs, including follow-up visits after surgery, wound care, fall prevention assessment, nutrition and wellness checks, and much more.

Local agencies including the DOVE Project and Vashon Youth & Family Services are eager to engage with the program, Vinci said.

The budget also calls for the district to spend $30,000 to develop a new comprehensive community risk reduction plan that will encompass CPR training, wildfire prevention, household fire prevention, and much more, said Vinci.

Staffing

The 2024 budget funds two additional firefighter/EMT positions, with these jobs to be filled by a current search that has already attracted close to 45 applicants, according to Vinci.

Those two hires will bring the district’s staff of career firefighter/EMTs to 22.

In contrast, the district’s 2022 budget, devised before the hire of Vinci as fire chief in July of 2022, funded a staff of 13 full-time professional firefighters — a number that was dangerously inadequate to meet the island’s needs, said Vinci.

The district’s paid staffing now stands at five firefighters/EMTs per day, with shifts of three firefighters at Station 55 and two at the Burton station. These crews are augmented, at times, by volunteer firefighters or EMTs.

But more help will arrive soon, when two firefighters hired earlier this year graduate from the fire academy in January, alleviating some of the overtime hours worked by the current staff.

The addition of two additional positions budgeted in 2024, Vinci said, will bring the district closer to its strategic plan goal of having six firefighters on each shift — a currently unbudgeted accomplishment Vinci hopes to achieve by January of 2025.

In February, he said, the district will apply for a $700,000 grant from FEMA that provides three years of funding to hire two additional firefighters.

Receiving that grant, he said, would “get us to six assigned on every shift, consistent with our strategic plan, which is where we want to go with all our staffing.”

Reserves, fleet and renovation

Importantly, the 2024 budget also calls for replenishing the district’s four reserve accounts by $1.05 million, including $375,000 to replenish the district’s fleet reserve and $450,000 being placed in the facilities reserve.

Bolstering those reserves, Vinci said, is necessary for preparing for costly fleet improvements and a pending major renovation project for the district’s main station on Bank Road.

Costly fleet line items in the 2024 budget include replacing the district’s two aging maintenance and utility vehicles with one new fully outfitted unit, at an approximate cost of $100,000.

The renovation of the station on Bank Road, Vinci said, is slated to begin in the late summer or early fall of 2024, with a total estimated cost of $3.2 million. The project will add 950 square feet of living space to the residential area on the second floor of the station, new bathrooms, a kitchen, a walk-in aid room, and a decontamination room.

The goals of the renovation project, Vinci said, are centered on improving the health and safety of [the district’s] staff.

“We have been continuing to put aside reserves for the renovation,” said Vinci. “So we won’t be taking out a loan. Our goal is to pay cash for that.”