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Section Twelve: Furore Needs, Recommendations, and Service Improvement SECTION TWELVE: Future Needs, Recommendations, and Service Improvement As the City of Eugene's Fire & EMS Department seeks to provide a consistently high quality of public safety services in the future, it must successfully contend with the many challenges presented by a growing community with high expectations and shifting demographics. While the organization's net General Fund and enterprise fund revenues continue to decrease, prevailing social and economic conditions in the state and region are combining to increase the overall demand for the very services those monies are designated to provide. It is clear that the department's service obligations are quickly outstripping the available resource base. Recent changes to Eugene's Ambulance Service Area (ASA) have had an adverse impact on the potential for economic efficiencies within our ASA, particularly that portion that lies outside our fire protection service area. Because Eugene receives authority for operating its ambulance service from Lane County government, the recent trend of a diminishing geographical protection area is outside of our direct control and could continue to the further detriment of the entire system. Current reimbursement reductions by the federal government and some major third-party payers have placed further strains on an already volatile marketplace. Continuing annexation activity, required for new development, is extending the "A" risk area in the northern and western portions of the community, which also increases the service demands on the organization. This situation is already evident in north/central Eugene where the department was required to reassign an existing fire crew from Valley River to Santa Clara in order to provide coverage to a larger area and population base. This modification has created a measurable service gap in terms of reliability and response modeling across the system. Ongoing community growth is placing new burdens on the city's established Urban Growth Boundary. As a result, there is less land available for development and the central city is beginning to experience increasing density of development and infill. This often necessitates high-rise construction, which creates unique stresses on a fire and EMS agency, as it takes additional time and resources to marshal sufficient firefighting and emergency medical forces on the upper floors of taller structures. In tum, this type of urban development brings with it a corresponding increase in congestion. More vehicles sharing an aging street network, the proliferation of enhanced traffic control systems/techniques, and the construction of narrower streets all serve to reduce the overall response and reliability capabilities of emergency response resources. This means that it will take longer for outlying fire and EMS crews to respond back into the core of the city. Consequently, downtown and inner city crews must have an enhanced ability to provide hazard mitigation, reducing their dependence on additional resources from the city's periphery.