Radio change leads to larger discussion for fire departments

One thing sometimes leads to another.

A recent change in Electric City is causing leaders in Coulee Dam and Grand Coulee to look at more possible changes for area fire departments and the ambulance service.

Electric City this year awarded its contract for supplying police services to Coulee Dam, after decades of Grand Coulee supplying the service.

The two towns are largely in different counties, and each has used different county dispatch systems — Coulee Dam’s with Okanogan County, Electric City’s with Grant County’s Multi-Area Communications system, or MAC.

Switching to MAC necessitated a change in radio systems for the Coulee Dam Police Department, which is occurring. But Coulee Dam’s fire trucks are still on Okanogan’s dispatch system, creating a potential communications hazard when fire departments work jointly to fight a fire or other emergency, which is most often the case.

Grand Coulee Fire Chief Ryan Fish met with Coulee Dam Mayor Bob Poch last week and with the town council Wednesday night to talk about the best path forward, but not just about radios.

Fish told the council he and Poch had begun discussing a much larger possibility, one of which area fire departments approve but which would need discussion, problem solving and approval by city councils: gathering all local departments under a cross-county fire fighting authority.

Seeing the coming problem, Ryan, who sits on a MAC advisory group, had worked a deal with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office for acquiring their old radios for Coulee Dam’s use, he said.

“Most of the fire departments here having trouble keeping their rosters up, and I think it might be beneficial to the whole area if we could combine everybody into one fire district, or even contract out or whatever,” Poch told the council.

“I could be wrong,” Fish said, “but I’m betting the public would be for it.”

Grand Coulee’s ambulance service is already serving Coulee Dam, Fish noted.

“I just wanted to bring it up tonight, so you guys know what we’re talking about little bit,” Poch told his council.