Yachats Fire District board OKs new ordinance allowing it to collect fees from chronic offenders

The Yachats Rural Fire Protection District wants to crack down on chronic offenders who burn debris out of season, call 9-1-1 constantly or when it can bill insurance for responding to an accident on U.S. Highway 101.

The district already has the ability to bill for unnecessary calls out of its sprawling service area. Now, after the district board’s approval this week, it can charge for those inside its boundaries.

“We should have done this 10 years ago, but it was a hassle,” said district administrator Frankie Petrick. “Now with more vehicle crashes and a lot more people in the area, it was just time to do it.”

Petrick and some board members said there are not a lot of issues, just some chronic ones. In discussing the ordinance over three monthly meetings, the board was never given a dollar amount that the ordinance could possibly raise.

There are a handful of district residents who are chronic offenders of burning out of season or burning garbage, Petrick said. Now, after being called to those fires by neighborhood complaints, the district can seek to get the cost of their response reimbursed – and put liens on property if they are not paid. It’s designed to be an incentive to obey the rules, board members said.

The district will also be allowed to bill a motorist’s auto insurance company in certain cases if it responds to an accident along Highway 101, which is a state highway technically not in the fire district’s boundaries. That also only happens a “couple of times a year,” Petrick said.

“But in this time of low funds, it makes sense to try to recoup some funds the district is legally entitled to,” she said.

The district still needs to work up a fee schedule for types of calls and types of responses. It will use a schedule from the Oregon Fire Marshal’s Office to determine rate of pay for firefighters, emergency medical technicians and even volunteers. There is also a reimbursement schedule for the type of apparatus, equipment or vehicle used in a response.

Patrick said the new ordinance does not apply to South Lincoln Ambulance, which is the district operated but privately owned ambulance company that covers the fire district. That could change, however, if the ambulance company is eventually absorbed into the district, Petrick said.