The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

I’m sure I don’t totally understand how emergency services operate in and around Waitsburg, but here’s how I can best explain it:

The city of Waitsburg has a fire department that puts out fires and responds to other emergencies within the city limits. The area of Walla Walla County surrounding Waitsburg has its own fire department (WW Co. Fire District 2) that responds to emergencies outside the city, but within the county.

Then there’s an area in Columbia County that’s nearer to Waitsburg than Dayton that’s served by yet another fire department (called Columbia Co. Fire District 2).

The thing is that all three of these fire departments have the same Chief, and they share the same building and equipment, which is manned by the same personnel.

The only thing that seems to be handled separately by each of these departments is the billing and paperwork and how the funding flows. Also, each of the county Department 2s has its own elected commissioners, and the Waitsburg Fire Department is overseen by the city council.

And there’s more. Waitsburg has its own private ambulance service that’s separate from all of those fire departments.

The last thing I am is an expert on emergency services, but this seems like a really complicated way to provide these services to an area with only a couple thousand people.

Fortunately this situation may change soon. The Waitsburg Ambulance Service has lost two of its three paid employees. (See Page 1 story.) And the service cannot get the volunteers it needs. So WW Co. District 2 is looking into taking over WAS.

For several years, the Waitsburg City Council has been seeking a way to get out of the fire protection business. Last week, they passed an ordinance that seeks to put that idea in front of voters this fall.

The potential costs and impacts to taxpayers and property owners that these changes would bring are still not fully known. The Times will continue to cover this story as the leaders of these various groups continue to ponder the issues.

But it seems pretty clear that a more streamlined process for providing emergency services to the area in and around Waitsburg is needed. I hope the leaders of these groups will continue to move in that direction.