Item A: River Road/Santa Clara Transition Project

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Fire Protection & Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Current Situation River Road Fire protection and emergency medical service (EMS) in the River Road neighborhood is provided to both in-City and non-City residents and businesses by the City of Eugene Fire and Emergency Services Department. Service to non-City residents and businesses in this neighborhood is accomplished via a contract with the River Road Water District, an arrangement based on the need for a neighborhood-based governmental contracting partner and (presumably) the central role of adequate water supply in fire suppression. A small area of the River Road neighborhood west of North Eugene High School is serviced by the Santa Clara Rural Fire Protection District. There are no City or Fire District fire stations in River Road, although a new City station opened nearby in the Santa Clara neighborhood in mid-2005, and Santa Clara Rural Fire’s Station No. 1 is also nearby. Santa Clara The Santa Clara Rural Fire Protection District provides fire protection and emergency medical services (EMS) to non-City properties in the Santa Clara neighborhood that are primarily east of Stark Street and north of Beltline Road (although there is some territory west of Stark at the far north of the neighborhood that is served by Santa Clara Fire). Santa Clara Fire has two fire stations along the Santa Clara neighborhood stretch of River Road, one close to Beltline Road and a northerly station near Awbrey Park. Santa Clara Fire also serves properties outside of the Urban Growth Boundary (and the neighborhood boundary) to the north and to the east, but this territory is relatively lightly populated (approximately 200 homes out of the 4,500 in the entire Santa Clara Fire service district). Continued annexation of Santa Clara neighborhood properties to the City, or a withdrawal of service by Santa Clara Fire to only areas outside of the UGB, could obviously spell the end of this Fire District. Fire District management also indicates that the City decision in 2002 to provide direct fire protection services to Santa Clara’s in-City properties, rather than contract with the District, created a significant fiscal imbalance between revenues and the cost of continued service to the balance of the neighborhood. Lane Rural Fire/Rescue serves a smaller area of non-City properties within the Santa Clara neighborhood west of Stark Street. Lane Rural operates four stations, with the closest to the Santa Clara neighborhood located west of the Northwest Expressway at Irvington Street, just outside the neighborhood boundary. In addition to fire suppression and EMS, Lane Rural has provided ambulance service for over 20 years. Lane Fire also includes the Northwest Industrial Corridor, and a large rural, unincorporated area outside of the UGB (representing about 70-75% of the entire area of the Fire District). The “high value” industrial property within Lane Rural makes a substantial contribution to the Fire District’s relatively low tax rate for the level of services offered, and also means, in contrast to Santa Clara Fire, that Lane Rural could more easily survive the City’s annexation of its service territory within the Santa Clara neighborhood. For many years, Eugene Fire contracted with these two fire districts to also protect in-City properties in the Santa Clara neighborhood. The City elected in July 2002 to provide direct fire protection and EMS to in-City residents and businesses, and established a temporary fire station in the neighborhood. A new City station adjacent to these temporary quarters opened in the Santa Clara neighborhood in the mid- 2005. Presently, Lane Rural Fire/Rescue has a “first response” agreement with Eugene Fire that assumes that first response from Eugene will balance first response from Lane Rural (e.g.: there is no monetary exchange for calls). Santa Clara and Eugene have a similar agreement (Eugene however compensates Santa Clara for “first response” calls to City residents). The incidence of “first response” calls declined when Eugene Fire opened its interim fire station in 2002, and this decline should continue with the opening of the permanent City fire station in mid-2005. 9 River Road/Santa Clara Transition/Heritage White Paper DRAFT 11-24-05 Service provider Review