The Ocean Shores Police and Fire Departments presented 2017 budget requests to the City Council last week that outline some similar goals and potential dilemmas going into the new year.

Both departments hope to hold on to the recent staff additions and continue to replace outdated and over-used equipment.

The preliminary budget was to be delivered to Mayor Crystal Dingler last Friday.

Finance Director Angela Folkers said the city is on track to stick to its original budget schedule.

“The preliminary budget is basically all the department heads’ wish list, what their plans are for next year,” Folkers explained of the process.

The mayor then goes back to the department heads and compares their requests with the amount of revenues anticipated.

On Sept. 30, the budget estimates and revenue figures will be prepared for the City Council, and the first council all-day study session on the budget is planned for Oct. 6 at the Lions Club.

The council is scheduled to receive the draft of the recommended 2017 budget on Oct. 18, followed by public hearings on Oct. 24 and Nov. 14.

“The plan is to get it approved at the November 28th council meeting,” Folkers said. “All is going according to plan.”

Fire Department

Fire Chief Tom Lique noted that his staff grew by seven this past year because of a federal SAFER grant to provide funding for two years for the additional personnel.

“Transitioning to the SAFER positions was a little more difficult” than anticipated going into the 2016 budget, Lique said. Just hiring that many new staff was like doubling the size of the Fire Department, the chief noted.

“Not only was hiring the new SAFER positions difficult, but in the middle of all of that going on, I had two of my career people resign — one a career lieutenant, and the other one of my firefighter/paramedics — increasing the number of people I need to replace and interview,” Lique said.

Now, everyone has been hired and they are all working in the field, “which is huge for us,” he said.

“Right now, we’re at full staff,” Lique said. The department now includes 18 employed members and full volunteer staff.

For the year, the department has responded to about 150 more calls, many of those being medic transports out of Ocean Shores to Grays Harbor Community Hospital.

“We have effectively had two medic units on staff every day for 2016,” Lique said. “We’re doing a good job right now at handling those stacked calls.”

The department also has seen an apparent increase in response to patients suffering from cardiac arrest, Lique said, citing a period where 55 percent of those taken to the hospital from May to September with cardiac arrests were resuscitated to the point where they had a pulse or vital signs before they reached the hospital, as opposed to 29 percent the year before when the department had fewer staff on duty.

“I think that’s impact and one of the best indicators for those SAFER group is impacting our responses,” Lique said.

Also, the department now has a full-time fire inspector position, which means that all commercial inspections will have been completed this year, according to Lique.

Last year also saw the department’s high number of training hours in the past five years: “That’s a pretty big accomplishment considering preparation is most of what fighting fires is about.”

For the next year, the department would like to continue to improve its training abilities, potentially building a roof prop at the south station to simulate some live conditions. Another goal is to continue involvement with Grays Harbor County Emergency Management and other neighboring agencies.

Lique also said the department has “ambulances that are all over 100,000 miles and heart monitors that we currently can’t get repaired because they have expired.”

Ultimately, the issue will be what happens with staffing after 2017.

“We need to talk about staffing — what is the service level that we do want,” Lique said. “What are the expectations? Are we wanting to keep some additional staff when the SAFER grant expires (after two years)? We just need to have that conversation.”

Police Department

Police Chief Mike Styner opened his budget presentation noting the city has lost two of its trained boating officers in recent years and he would like to send two officers to get the training in 2017. Revenue to operate the program comes from state boating license fees, and not part of the general fund.

On the code enforcement and animal control portion of the budget, Styner has not made any significant new requests but emphasized an ongoing need for the city to build a new animal shelter capable of handling dangerous dogs. He estimated such a facility would cost between $225,000-$327,000. Knowing the city likely doesn’t have the funds to do such a project next year, the chief would like to have a consultant conduct a study to determine if the current facility next to the skate park could be remodeled to handle dangerous dogs. Styner also continued to advocate for the creation of a funding stream to build an abatement fund to deal with nuisance properties that have a history of long-term code violations.

The 2017 law enforcement budget request includes funding for a part-time records clerk in the Police Department, along with the replacement of four police cars with their associated equipment. The current vehicle replacement schedule previously set by the city indicates five police vehicles are scheduled to be replaced in 2017, but Styner said he would delay one until the following year.

The department also needs to replace 12 “aging, failing portable radios,” Styner added, along with nine “aging, failing, no longer serviceable Tasers.” The funding for those items, he noted, would come from the recent countywide voter-approved sales tax increase.

“Our proposed repairs and maintenance budget will reflect a significant increase,” he pointed out. “This is due to the cost associated with the repair and the resurfacing of the parking lot at the Police Station, which is now estimated to cost $63,533.”

Asked what his top priorities were, Styner noted the equipment that needed replacement is all “officer-safety equipment. We have got to get them replaced.”