Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Incumbent Kevin Hanson says the board of fire commissioners in the Napavine area have made huge improvements in a fire department that sometimes didn’t answer emergency calls until the third dispatch tone.

Response time was 10 minutes, now it’s six, according to Hanson.

Kevin Hanson

Today, Lewis County Fire District 5 boast 25 active volunteers, some of whom don’t even live in the district but choose to volunteer there, he said.

The mostly volunteer department that protects 66 square miles surrounding Napavine, has seen 14 chiefs in the past decade, according to Hanson.

Hanson attributes the positive changes in District 5 to the commissioners’ decision to hire a full time chief at a competitive wage.

“I’ve taken a lot of heat for what we pay him,” Hanson said. “I know without effective leadership, we’re not going to be able to provide the service people want.”

The 45-year-old Napavine man is seeking a second six-year term as fire commissioner and much of the heat is coming from challenger Jamie Guenther.

Ballots are due in the Lewis County Auditor’s Office on Tuesday in the vote-by-mail general election.

Guenther, 52, decided to run when last year, the district went to taxpayers twice asking for more money. District 5 doesn’t need more revenue, it just needs to spend more wisely and shift its priorities, according to Guenther.

Jamie Guenther

“I sat at home and thought, you know, this is crazy” given the economic climate, Guenther said.

“I’m basically of the mind if they want the spending to stop, the outlandish spending, that I’m the person to vote for,” Guenther said.

Guenther is an equipment operator for Lewis County Public Works. He owns the now-shuttered Jackson Prairie Speedway adjacent to his Mary’s Corner area home where he grew up.

He served as a volunteer firefighter and EMT for District 5 right out of high school, for about five years.

He’s been attending fire commissioner meetings and finds several areas he thinks the commissioners overspend.

Primarily, they are “administration heavy,” he says.

Besides Chief Eric Linn and three paid firefighters, they have a well-paid, full time secretary, Guenther points out.

The adjacent Winlock fire district pays one of its firefighters about $4,200 a year to handle secretarial functions, he says.

The Winlock chief is paid just $6,000 year, and the nearby District 6 chief was earning $72,000 year without benefits, he said.

Chief Linn is paid some $80,000 a year, with benefits such as health insurance.

Guenther can’t understand why the commissioners threatened to pull out of the paramedic program, saying it didn’t have enough money. He wants to make sure the district continues it relationship with Lewis County Medic One.

“What you’re getting is 24-hour, seven-day coverage of, basically a rolling hospital,” he said. “It’s very much worth whatever the costs are.”

The current board of fire commissioners worked out a deal, but Guenther doesn’t think the solution put in place is necessarily permanent, he said.

Since the District has a six and a half year employment contract with its chief, there’s not much that can be done about his salary, according to Guenther. But they can watch his spending more closely, he says.

Chief Linn’s discretionary spending limit is too high, he says.

For example, he purchased a lawn mower for $3,700 and paid a Tacoma firm some $4,000 to have the parking lot resealed, according to Guenther. And, Guenther wonders, why didn’t they choose to hire that work out locally?

“I think the commissioners need to make those decisions,” he said.

“I just want people to know I’ll be a very good steward of their money, and be very involved in how it’s spent,” he said.

Hanson is adamant he’s a good steward of the taxpayer’s money.

He points out District 5 is the third busiest department in the county, and had the third lowest tax rate.

Hanson especially defends the board of commissioner’s investment in the chief’s salary.

“It’s worth every dollar I spend on personnel,” Hanson said. It goes back to those two things I’ve said over and over again – saving lives, saving property – without him, you’re not going to get it.”

Other areas of contention:

Guenther: The fire chief uses his work vehicle to commute from his home in Thurston County.
Hanson:  He lives in Grand Mound, is on call 24-7, and the truck is not for personal use.

Guenther: The district flew personnel to Palm Springs to buy a rig for the department.
Hanson: They paid $9,000, including airfare, for a 2008 surplus Dodge with factory-installed winch, worth more than $20,000.

Gunether: The district purchased a vehicle from its assistant chief
Hanson: They  paid $14,000 for a Chevrolet Tahoe he says Blue Book is over $20,000.
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Brief bios

Candidate:  Kevin Hanson
Age:  45
Occupation:  Jail administrator for Lewis County Sheriff’s Office
Resides:  Napavine
How long there: past eighteen years
Education: Associate of Arts, South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, 1989
Political experience: ran six years ago for commissioner and won
Find Hanson’s campaign info: on Facebook

Candidate:  Jamie Guenther
Age:  52
Occupation:  equipment operator, Lewis County Public Works
Resides:  near Mary’s Corner
How long there:  all his life
Education:  Napavine High School, 1977
Political experience:  none

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Police have a suspect in custody following a bank robbery in Oakville this morning.

Officers called about 9:20 a.m. to the Sterling Savings Bank on U.S. Highway 12 learned a male brandishing what sounded to be a foot-long knife threatened the tellers and made off with cash out a side door, according to the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office.

They since concluded his 25-year-old girlfriend was driving a getaway car, Undersheriff Rick Scott said.

Nobody was hurt and the amount of money stolen was not disclosed.

Officers from the Chehalis Tribal Police, McCleary and even the state Department of Fish and Wildlife assisted in setting up containment this morning, Scott said.

Law enforcement developed information that it sounded very similar to a hold up at a convenience store in Aberdeen late last night, Scott said. They began to look for a 23-year-old Hoquiam man, he said.

Early this afternoon, the man’s vehicle was stopped in Aberdeen and both individuals taken into custody, he said.

Police recovered some of the money and some items they say implicate the pair in the robbery, but not the weapon, according to Scott.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Two longtime volunteer members of the rural Chehalis fire district are running in next week’s election for the position vacated when fire commissioner Dana Williams resigned.

Kirk Johnston and Jim Martin are running an amicable race, saying they share many of the same views on how to run Lewis County Fire District 6 and neither will be particularly upset if the other wins.

Kirk Johnston

Johnston, 49, is a paramedic and one of two instructors who train emergency medical technicians locally.

Martin, 40, works at Cardinal Glass in Winlock, overseeing the computer programs that deal with customer orders and shipping. He’s also the plant’s emergency response team instructor.

Both live in rural Chehalis.

Johnston said he was asked by several people to run; he was appointed this summer to the three-person commission in the interim until the election.

He’s been studying the budget of District 6 and other fire districts for the past few years, watching where the dollars have been going, he said.

While Johnston’s campaign doesn’t include knocking on doors and handing out flyers, when asked, he tells people, “I feel I have a little more experience and understanding of the budget and history of the department,” he said.

Jim Martin

The board of three commissioners meet twice a month and are paid a stipend, the amount of which Johnston said he didn’t know exactly.

The district protects about 145 square miles outside Chehalis, with some 40 volunteers, according to Johnston. Martin says he thinks the number of active volunteers is somewhere between 20 and 30.

The commissioners are in the process of a nationwide search  for a chief, following the recent resignation of Chief Bud Goodwillie. And they are in the in the midst of a building a new fire station in Adna – outside he flood plain – to replace the one ruined in the December 2007 flooding.

Both candidates talk of finding the balance in making sure citizens get a good value from the tax dollars that fund the department.

Johnston says the previous commissioners have done well; in that the district has very good equipment, probably some of the best in the county.

Martin says the fire department “has been blessed” in that it doesn’t currently have revenue issues.

Martin said he is running in part however because he thinks the fire district has been stagnant the last few years and he’d like to see it moving forward again.

“Our district is at a crossroads right now,” Martin said. “We still don’t have a chief, we have a vacant commissioner’s spot. I would just like to help lay the foundation for the district for the future.”

Martin says he tends to be vocal about issues and is willing to step up and help deal with them.

For example, a few years back, when he lived in Chehalis, he didn’t like the idea the city had of purchasing a building downtown for its fire department. So he ran for city council. He didn’t win.

A primary reason behind his decision to run for fire commissioner now are the discussions going on with District 6 and neighboring fire departments about the possibility of merging, he said.

“I was concerned someone would run who didn’t have the district’s well-being at heart,” he said. “I was willing to step up, and then my thought was, I need to step up.”

The general election is Tuesday. Ballots must be postmarked on or before Tuesday.

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Brief bio’s

Candidate:  Kirk Johnston
Age:  49
Occupation:  paramedic for Lewis County Medic 1
Resides:  rural Chehalis
How long there:  most of his life
Education: Para-medicine, Central Washington University, 2004
Political experience: none before now

Candidate: Jim Martin
Age:  40
Occupation:  business systems analyst at Cardinal Glass
Resides: rural Chehalis
How long there:  about 15 years in the area
Education: EMT certification, 2005; classes at Centralia College
Political experience:  ran for Chehalis City Council and lost, a few years back
Ask Martin questions: on Facebook