All general news stories will be filed under this category.
Thurston County has banned the discharge of consumer fireworks in unincorporated areas of the county after officials determined weather conditions and fire danger levels are too high.
The emergency ban was implemented after discussions with the county’s manager, fire marshal and director of emergency services.
Read the complete article on the Nisqually Valley News here.
Summer is definitely here. With temperatures set to be over 100 degrees this weekend, we would like to remind people to stay safe. Remember that the water is colder than it may look and always wear your life jackets.
For more information about this heat wave, read this article from the Chronicle.
With everyone being home more in the last year, some people started to think more about their health. With that came more sales for in-home workout equipment, such as Peloton’s Tread+ and Tread treadmills.
However, we have some safety and consumer information regarding these machines. Read more about this recall and some of the options available to you if you have/had one of these machines at Cutter Law’s website.
You power your home with energy, but do you know electrical safety? The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that 31,000 home electrical fires occur every year, and with over 180 cases involving electrocution or electricity-related incidents that could have been avoided, home electrical safety is too important to ignore. At Constellation, we care about the safety of our customers, and by following these electrical safety tips you can protect your home and your family.
Read more here.
Summer is coming and the weather is warming up. It’s the time of year when everyone wants to get out on the water for a day of fun. Don’t forget about safe boating, though. Safety is important, so advanced planning and proper boater education are important.
See more information on King 5 News.
We will be asking voters to renew our general M&O (Maintenance and Operations) Levy to $1.50 Per Thousand in August of 2021. This means that, on a $400,000 home, that equates to a $4.00 a month increase. Our levy was last restored in 2016 by the voters.
SE Thurston Fire Authority covers 129 sq miles and serves a population of approx. 35,802 citizens in Yelm, Rainier, the Lake Lawrence community, and the surrounding unincorporated area. SE Thurston Fire Authority continues to see a large increase in growth, which equates to increased requests for service. Over the past 5 years, SE Thurston Fire Authority has seen requests for service increase by over 10%.
2021 is on pace to see another 5% increase in requests for service. The cost to operate has increased in the past 5 years by over 20%. 98% of SE Thurston Fire Authority’s revenue comes from the general M&O levy. Funds from this levy renewal will be used to maintain our current levels of service.
The S.E. Thurston Fire Authority was granted $515,000 to remodel and expand the Lake Lawrence fire station, which is currently unstaffed.
Since the authority does not call for volunteers from home anymore, the way to staff the station today is to have a place where EMT firefighters can stay the night and pull shifts in order to respond from the station, something that is impossible in the current building.
“This station was built back in the late 70s and was never built to have full-time residents, or people staying here overnight, essentially,” said Mark King, fire chief of the authority. “So back in those times a lot of your volunteers were from home and so it worked out OK, but obviously in the last 20 years things have changed tremendously.”
The fire authority is glad it received $515,000 from the state’s capital budget, but the majority of the funds for the $3.6 million project will have to come from a bond, which has to be approved by the voters.
King said they wanted to keep the bond as small as possible.
“So before we go to bond, we are going to try and find other ways to capture as much of that money as we can to keep that bond size as small as we can to get that station open in the near future,” King said.
Currently, the Lake Lawrence station gets about a call a day that it would normally respond to. Those calls are being handled by stations in Rainier or Yelm right now, causing the response time to be substantially longer than it would be if the station was open.
The slow response time isn’t the only problem, King said.
“Every time we send trucks out of the city of Yelm or Rainier to respond to a call here, they’re now uncovered,” he said.
And other than a lower ability for the fire authority to be effective in the area, the homeowners of the Lake Lawrence area are shouldering more than they would financially if there was a staffed fire station in their community.
“The insurance rates people pay on their homeowner’s insurance are much higher because it’s not staffed,” King said. “The one thing everybody would feel is a reduction in their insurance rates. And then, when you do have the unfortunate incidence to call 911, you’d have a faster response time by this station.”
And even if a bond was approved, the homeowners of the area are expected to see a net savings.
“I can tell you that the cost to fund the bond will be less than the cost you pay for the increased insurance rates for an unstaffed fire station,” King said.
The updated fire station will have six bedrooms for 24-hour EMT firefighters. It will have a day room, a kitchen area, a workout area and an area to store bunker gear and personal effects. It will also be able to house four pieces of apparatus, an engine, tender and an aid unit.
“So we’re going to use everything we can possibly reuse,” King said of the project. “We were told by the architect firm that the station is actually in great shape as far as the core structure part, so we aren’t tearing anything down. We are going to remodel and add on to the current facility.”
King said he and the rest of the fire authority are excited to have this project on their ladder.
“It’s a fun project to finally get something built out here and something moving,” he said. “These people have gone a long time without the appropriate coverage, so we are excited to be able to build that for them.”
But that’s not what he’s most excited about.
“I think it will allow us to expand our volunteer- and career-force overall to be able to keep the station open,” he said. “I think I’m most excited by the fact that we can truly affect the rates of everybody who pays fire insurance (in the area), which will be what everybody feels, not just when you call 911.”
Originally posted on Nisqually Valley News
April is the time of year when we open up our windows and let in the fresh warm spring air! Unfortunately, it’s also the time of year when a lot of children fall out of windows! We have had several children in our jurisdiction fall out of windows throughout the years, so please look at the following link and help us to help keep our kids safe!
https://www.nsc.org/home-safety/safety-topics/child-safety/window-safety
Andrea Moore, 35, a three-year veteran with the Thurston County sheriff’s office, was stabbed within two minutes of arriving at a disturbance at a home in the 16900 block of Holly Street Southeast in Yelm. The deputy told dispatch shots were also fired.
Yelm police officers and deputies responded and gave aid to Moore and the suspect.
Moore was taken to St. Peters Hospital in serious but stable condition but has since been released and is recovering at home, officials said Wednesday.
