Timberlake taps nearby district for oversight

ATHOL — The Timberlake Fire Protection District has tapped its neighboring district to the south to oversee its operations for the next year.

The contract with Northern Lakes from Sept. 1 to Oct. 1, 2011, is for $80,000 for administration and $10,000 for training.

David “Rudy” Rudebaugh, Timberlake’s board president, said the deal will save the district about $79,000 as it no longer has to pay salaries and benefits to a chief, administrative assistant, part-time training officer and part-time technical advisor.

“The savings that we see through this management contract will be put to immediate use in equipment and facility needs that would have not occurred otherwise,” Rudebaugh said. “This is a good thing because we’re also able to live within the budget we’ve been given and will have better day-to-day management of the district.”

Timberlake serves the Athol, Bayview and Chilco areas. Northern Lakes serves Rathdrum and Hayden.

The Timberlake board earlier this summer decided to not renew the contract of Chief Jack Krill due to financial reasons.

Northern Lakes was contracted by Timberlake to provide administrative services in the interim.

Rudebaugh said administrative assistant Penny Laird would have lost her job at Timberlake with the new management contract, but she has been hired by Northern Lakes.

The districts will not merge under the contract. Both will have their own board.

Aside from saving money, future benefits include possibly adopting common operating policies, additional training resources and experience from the larger district, Rudebaugh said.

“The Timberlake Fire board of commissioners had to make some tough choices,” Rudebaugh said. “However, as a result, we were able to provide day-to-day management of the district, ensure that our service levels were maintained, make progress on maintaining our ISO ratings and save the taxpayers … .”

Rudebaugh said the the district has been feeling the crunch that many public services across the nation have been experiencing.

But some residents in the district do not agree with the recent decisions.

Bayview’s Dennis Damon said residents were essentially kept out of the decisionmaking process with both Krill and the management contract.

Damon is among those gathering signatures to recall Rudebaugh and fellow commissioner Marty Fish.

The petitions allege the commissioners violated open meeting laws to arrange for Northern Lakes to manage the district and improperly fired Krill.

The group has until Sept. 27 to gather 354 signatures, 50 percent of the total voters in the last election.

If the signatures are gathered and verified, the commissioners have five days to resign if they choose to do so. If they decline, an vote will be set, most likely in November.

After Krill’s contract was not renewed, Commissioner Chris Wiese resigned while Mitchell Copstead, who worked part time as a technical advisor, quit.

Chuck Hanson was recently appointed to replace Wiese, but his board member status is in limbo since he is not a registered voter in Kootenai County.