Fighting Fiscal Fires District Takes Do-It-Yourself Approach To New Firehouse

The fire district commissioners had no burning desire to raise taxes.

Still, this community along Idaho Highway 3 needed a new fire station. So in the summer of 1995, firefighters and other volunteers started building without having to borrow money.

Annual fire district tax receipts are being used, instead of the bond approach many communities take.

“It’s pay as you go,” fire district chairman Duke Harris said Friday. “We don’t buy anything unless we have the money to pay for it.”

Their persistence has paid off.

A fire truck and tanker took up residence in the Fernwood Firehouse this month; the fire district commissioners had their first meeting there on Tuesday. Floor tile is being laid, paving the way for the dozen volunteer firefighters to start using their new digs.

About 50 people helped over the years, fire chief Jay Truman said.

“I think it’s the largest volunteer project that’s been undertaken in the county,” he said.

Benewah County donated the land. County Commissioner Bud McCall, a former Fernwood resident, loaned heavy equipment from his business. The only labor costs were for wiring, plumbing, heating and finishing the basement floor.

“The guys worked pert near every Monday night,” Truman said of the firefighters.

The pay-as-you-go approach is fairly common for small communities, said Post Falls fire chief Lynn Borders, who’s on the board of the Idaho Fire Chiefs Association.

“It’s great to see it happen. What a way to go.”

So far, $65,000 in fire district tax receipts and $8,000 in donations have gone into the building. The annual Fernwood Days fund-raiser brought in some of that; $1,000 was a donation in memory of a young firefighter who committed suicide.

About $5,000 in plumbing fixtures still needs to be purchased.

The building has training, communications, storage and meeting rooms, as well as showers. It was designed by Harris. A retired Air Force officer with a degree in architecture, he visited other communities to examine their stations.

He found that the towns of Winchester and Kendrick had similar buildings, costing $235,000 and $250,000, respectively. Both required 35-year loans.

Of course, those towns are larger than the unincorporated Fernwood. It has about 400 people. Perhaps twice that many live in the area covered by the Fernwood Rural Fire Protection District, Truman said.

“New places are going in all the time,” Truman said.

Local folks have traditionally worked for the U.S. Forest Service, logging companies and the local garnet mine. Now, retirees are being drawn to the quiet rolling countryside.

The increasing numbers make Truman pleased about planned improvements to the Fernwood water system, which depend on state and federal grants coming through.

“The system improvements will give us 19 new hydrants” in addition to the existing seven or eight,” the chief said.

The county’s Upriver Ambulance may move into the firehouse, Harris said.

The rescue and fire crews have both been based across the highway from the new firehouse, in the community hall. Its dirt-floor garage holds pools of water and Fernwood’s Fire Engine No. 1, a 1931 museum piece that’s brought out for parades and parties.

The “new” fire truck is a 1953 GMC model that still has the name of an earlier owner, the Island County Fire District, emblazoned on the side. The community got that one in 1992, around the time the fire district formed.

“It’s real weary,” Truman said. “It moves slowly.”

Newer rigs and personal safety equipment are next on the list of priorities for the fire district.

Recruiting volunteers remains a constant need.

Truman, who owns the Fernwood Mercantile, is the son of a small-town fire chief whose father-in-law once held the same volunteer post in Fernwood.

He hopes the new firehouse will make the community service more attractive.

“There’s an awful lot of young guys around here who have to take these things more seriously,” he said, acknowledging that work and play schedules take a toll on volunteer ranks.

“During the afternoon, or on Friday and Saturday nights, are the worst times to have a fire.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos; Map of Fernwood area