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Arcata Fire crews battle a blaze in 2012. Photo by Mark McKenna
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12
NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020 • northcoastjournal.com
R is for Rescue
Arcata Fire District’s tax measure leaves staffing levels — and response times — up to voters By Thadeus Greenson thad@northcoastjournal.com
W
hen it comes to an emergency, response time is everything. When someone suffers a sudden cardiac arrest, their chance of survival drops 7 to 10 percent with each minute that passes without medical care, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. And, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, it only takes 30 seconds for a small flame to turn into a major house fire that can spread from room to room, filling the home with black smoke or engulfing it in flames within minutes. “Time is critical,” says Rob Cannon, president of the Arcata Fire District’s volunteer organization. “Minutes matter.” To hear Cannon and others around the Arcata Fire District headquarters tell it, that’s exactly what’s at stake with Measure R on the March 3 ballot. If the measure passes, it will bring in an additional $1.9 million in funding to the financially beleaguered district — which has been operating at a deficit in recent years, depleting its reserves and losing staff. The added revenue will allow the district to continue to fully staff its three stations, which combine to serve some 37,000 residents in Arcata, McKinleyville, Bayside, Manila and Jacoby Creek. But if the measure fails, the district will have to shutter one of its stations and eliminate five firefighter positions. Sitting in a conference room on the east side of the district’s downtown station on a recent Thursday morning, district board member Randy Mendosa says the
last thing he wanted was for the district to come to community members with hat in hand. Mendosa retired as Arcata’s city manager in 2014 after a career that began with him driving a bus before serving decades as a police officer, later as the city’s police chief and, finally, as its city manager. He chuckles recalling how he wound up on the board. He says he was at a Sunrise Rotary meeting a few years back when Justin McDonald, who’d just recently taken over as the district’s fire chief, came to talk to the rotary and said the board — which has five members representing geographical wards — was down a member. McDonald had known Mendosa since he was a kid and Mendosa used to pay him to feed his birds when he went out of town. McDonald says he told Mendosa his house was located in the ward in question and the recently retired city manager couldn’t say no. But he was stepping into an organization undergoing some big changes. In addition to the new chief, a pair of Federal Emergency Management Agency grants had just expired, leaving a hole in the district’s budget and officials eying a tax measure. “I said, ‘I’m not going to lend my name to any new tax initiative. I’ve lived in this town for 40 years. I can’t look at my friends and neighbors and support this until I know it’s really necessary.’” Mendosa says. “Well, I’m here to look you in the face and say we’ve shaved every penny but there’s a structural deficit. There isn’t enough to staff three stations 24 hours
