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PRIORITY ISSNE: Re-Staff Fire Engine 9 (Valley River) <br />Contact: Thomas J. Tallon, Chief, Fire and Emergency Medical Services, 682-7102 <br />Deputy Chief Randall B. Groves, Staff Lead, 682-7103 <br />Reporting period: October -December 2005 <br />This priority focused on re-staffing the Valley River fire engine and resuming neighborhood-based fire <br />suppression, rescue, and EMS first response in the Valley River area. <br />In June 2002, the Eugene Fire and EMS Department was asked to begin providing fire suppression, <br />rescue and EMS first response to Eugene residents living in the Santa Clara area. With no new funding <br />available to provide this new level of service, the department elected to relocate the Valley River <br />Station's Engine 9 and its staffing to a new temporary facility located in the Santa Clara community. <br />This move was made because of the prolonged response times required to serve the Santa Clara area <br />from existing Eugene fire stations. Although the move was necessary, the relocating of Engine 9 <br />resulted in an anticipated, negative impact to the Valley River area as well as the Sheldon area, which <br />relies on Engine 9 for secondary coverage. <br />OUTCOMES <br />• Improve overall response times throughout the department's entire service area. <br />• Increase response reliability throughout across the system with significant improvement in <br />the Valley River neighborhood. <br />Measurable improvement in these two measures and the associated services delivered to the public <br />should be recognized immediately upon the re-staffing of Engine. <br />PROGRESS SINCE LAST REPORT <br />The department has completed a recruit firefighter hiring process, which will provide staffing levels that <br />are adequate to allow ongoing staffing of the Valley River Fire Station. The department has also reached <br />an agreement to retain an additional fire apparatus scheduled for surplus to deploy at the station. <br />CHALLENGES <br />The challenges encountered during this reporting period included overseeing an aggressive hiring <br />process for the needed firefighters to backfill the positions being reassigned to the Valley River <br />Station, and the development of a working agreement with Fleet Services to retain a fire apparatus <br />designated for surplus in FY06. <br />At this point, the finalists from the recruit firefighter hiring process have moved on to the background <br />check and an agreement has been reached with Fleet Services to retain the needed apparatus. The <br />department is continuing the process of identifying existing inventory or acquiring new equipment to <br />complete the outfitting of this new engine resource. <br />INTERMEDIATE MEASURES <br />The following are key indicators of progress toward the goal: <br />• An extensive recruit firefighter hiring process has been completed and background checks <br />are in progress. This measure's benchmark of completion will be achieved when formal hire <br />letters have been offered to and accepted by the requisite number of successful recruits. <br />-11- <br />