By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The chief of the largest fire department in Lewis County has taken a job near Spokane, just four months after the adoption of a shrinking budget necessitating layoffs of firefighters here.
Riverside Fire Authority Chief Jim Walkowski arrived to Centralia eight years ago as the city department was expanding and merging with its neighboring district and will take a post next month as an assistant chief with another growing fire agency.
Chief Jim Walkowski
Spokane County Fire District 9 based in Mead is a mid-sized suburban district with more than twice as many personnel, according to its chief.
SCFD9 Chief Jack Cates announced the new hire yesterday on their Facebook page, saying Walkowski will join them on May 1.
He was one of four finalists for the position, when Cates conducted interviews early last week.
In December, Walkowski announced an abrupt and large drop in revenue coming from a massive decrease in the assessed value of TransAlta’s power plant – and the taxes they contribute locally – in anticipation of its 2020 closure. He said the change would likely lead to cutting up to five personnel. Some have already been let go.
The organization which protects about 180 square miles was operating with 27 firefighters, several of whom are paramedics as well, along with its volunteers.
SCFD9 employs 65 firefighters and just hired four more. It has about 100 volunteers, according to Cates. It protects about 120 square miles and a population of about 40,000, he said.
The move leaves the Chehalis Fire Department without a chief as well; Walkowski a year ago took on the halftime position after its Chief Kelvin Johnson retired.
Riverside has a budget this year of about $3.9 million compared with last year’s roughly $4.6 million.
Walkowski said in December the department previously understood the Washington State Department of Revenue would be depreciating the value of TransAlta more gradually, over an eight or nine year period, but learned of the faster rate. The expected loss in revenue to Riverside is $800,000 to $1,200,000, according to the chief.
A Bainbridge Island native, Walkowski began his firefighting career there in 1991, and eventually moved up to become chief. He took a $12,000 a year pay cut to make the move to Centralia in May 2006.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Your are right about the cut backs and we will have to decide if we can live without the service or want to pay more to keep people available to come when we need them, but read what the Chronicle has to say about what the Chief was trying to do, it looks more like he was trying to pull the wool over the board members and walk away with extra money that they probably couldn’t afford to lose. How to you commend him for trying to rip us off?
Folks, you are All missing the big picture here. Due Trans Alta being allowed to devalue (not pay property taxes) at an accelerated rate the RFA is losing over a million dollars of revenue. The only way the RFA can compensate for this is to lay off employees. These are the people who show up at your house within minutes when some calls 911. The RFA did not have an overabundance of responders on staff. Reducing this number is going to place the community a risk.
You need to grow up and look at reason the fire department exists…to make the citizens safe and to be there when they are needed….over 4000 times last year. The Chief is trying to do the right thing. He needs to be commended for it. It is time the rest of us get behind and work toward protecting our community and stop being petty children.
Lets see once again bahlsdeep has to hide behind a fake name and as you see I don’t and really don’t care what you say my Constitutional rights gives me the right to say any thing I want. So with that lets see. 13 years of school in the Centralia area 1 year of college in Centralia. College at WSU, National Carrere College in Seattle, 18 certificates in Security and Security Management, Diploma in Security and Security management, 15 years of store security. Reaching the level of lieutenant with 272 shoplifting arrest, 18 years of traffic flagger, 18 years as a process server, 4 years as a repossession, 6 months as a bounty hunter. Oh and 14 mths in prison for a crime I did not do. Oh and you thought I would be afraid to say that. But you notice that bahlsdeep will not use his real name (that I know) cause he does not what you to know his background. So when you can prove what you have done in life let everyone know cause I have all the paper work to back up my stuff. So all ready this all bahlsdeep knows is what he reads he knows nothing about me.
June 2007 EMT levy campaign. I lived pretty close to the pearl St. Station at the time. The Harrison st. station was temporarily closed for budgetary reasons. EVERY DAY ALL DAY, during the two week levy campaign they ran sirens out of the Pearl st. station. I do mean, literarily ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. The levy passes. guess what? The sirens stop over night. And Harrison St. station was still closed for a number of months still
Troy, you are a special person. This man has done more in 1 year than you have in a lifetime. (Including your prison stint) He is very respected in the community and will be missed. Yes the RFA will move on but his shoes will be hard to fill.
I wonder if Bill Bates is next in line. Oh yeah here’s that link. http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Charge-Centralia-council-member-pastor-killed-cat-with-air-rifle-144304735.html. It would be good to take out the trash in Centralia, after all it only took the city four years to pick up the sand bags that were left over from the flood we had several years back.
Nice how he comes in and renames all of are fire departments Riverside Fire Authority and then leaves. If you will check where he worked in California he done the same thing with the same name. Now we will see if he will change the names of all the department in Spokane to. But all in all Centralia Fire Department will always be Centralia Fire Department and a well ran one with or with out this guy….
This guy leaving will be a good thing for Centralia residents. For an agency that answers no more calls than they do they spend a ton more money than any other department their size. Funny how when they tighten the purse strings the riffraff are the first to bail.