Sheriff, 911 chief want answers before committing  

By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer

Marita Haddan, commander of Hood River County’s 911 dispatch center, isn’t buying into a $536,400 communications grant until all of her questions have been answered.

She said Cascade Locks Fire Chief Jeff Pricher failed to consult either her or Sheriff Joe Wampler, who oversees the emergency dispatch center, before requesting the federal funding.

“I don’t disagree with the conceptual idea of this application — just the process,” said Wampler. “There is no plan here and that makes me pretty uneasy.”

Pricher submitted the grant application during the late winter of 2008 but did not provide a copy to Wampler and Haddan — as requested several times —  until March of 2009. A week later, the Regional Assistance to Firefighters Grant was awarded to Cascade Locks by FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security.

Pricher said it was not his intention to withhold documents from Haddan and Wampler. He said, during 2008, his attention had been focused on getting a new fire station built and arranging for the purchase of a new fire engine.

Haddan said questions to Cascade Locks City Manager Bernard Seeger and Pricher about ongoing costs and liability associated with the grant have yet to be adequately addressed.

“To have the matter handled this way has created some tension, to say the least, since it directly affects my budget,” she said.

“If it was done the correct way and the questions were answered, I would be happy to do something that benefits our firefighters.”

Pricher said area fire chiefs are all on board to gain a better communication system with the grant. The federal dollars will allow firefighters to install compatible radio equipment in command vehicles.

Emergency responders will then be able to receive information over the same narrow band radio frequency and coordinate a response.

Dispatchers will then monitor one channel instead of three and have the ability to mesh with users of different radio spectrums.

“This is purely to enhance firefighter safety and to make the dispatcher’s job a little easier,” said Pricher.

He said the 911 advisory board, made up of emergency responders, gave him the go-ahead to write the grant. He said a secondary benefit of the funding is that outdated equipment can be replaced in the dispatch center.

“Just because they (Haddan and Wampler) didn’t have the grant in narrative detail doesn’t mean they weren’t aware of it,” said Pricher.

Haddan said her department is expected to pay the majority of the matching costs for the grant —  even though she was never asked for input. She said the money will be drained from her equipment replacement fund, which is used to upgrade the communication system as needed.

The grant outlines that $26,820 of the $53,640 match will be paid by the applicant, which is the City of Cascade Locks. The remainder of the match is to be split between recipient fire agencies in Hood River and Wasco counties.

However, the 911 board, which Pricher chairs, has decided the emergency dispatch center budget should absorb $38,400 of the match costs. He said the rationale for that decision is that Haddan’s department will receive about $380,000 of the new equipment.

Area fire agencies will each pay about $1,200 as their share of the remaining match dollars.

Chief Deputy Jerry Brown said at least one council member from Cascade Locks has contacted him seeking information about the status of the grant. He said confusion is eliminated with county grants because all applications have to be approved by the elected board of commissioners.

He said department heads are also consulted when the funding request is written up to be sure that their concerns have been addressed.

Because that procedure was not followed by Cascade Locks, Brown said an intergovernmental agreement will now have to be developed between the county and city. He said that was not possible until late last week when Pricher responded to a May 13 letter from county counselor Lesley Apple-Haskell. She had requested that Cascade Locks outline its obligation under the grant.

Wampler and Brown contend that, since Pricher signed and submitted the application on behalf of Cascade Locks, that city now bears responsibility for the grant. They said that delineation needs to be reflected in the language of the agreement.

Seeger said Cascade Locks serves only as the “host agency” for the grant because it benefits fire services in both Hood River and Wasco counties.

“This is something that people should be proud of. I’m very impressed by the work Jeff and the 911 board had done to put this together,” he said.

Wampler has historically refrained from applying for grants that involve an ongoing financial commitment from the recipient.

He joins Haddan and Brown in the desire to provide all local emergency responders with the best tools and resources to perform their responsibilities.

For that reason, all three officials remain conceptually supportive of the grant written by Pricher. But they are also determined to have financial data about ongoing maintenance costs, software upgrades and engineering work in hand before the grant is accepted.

“Sometimes you just can’t afford free,” Brown said.