INSIDE THIS ISSUE Peninsula Family Dental

Port Ludlow Voice Page 14
Park Districts continued from previous page
Presently, there are only two park districts in Jefferson
County. The Coyle park district funds Coyle’s community
center. Brinnon also has formed a park district mainly to
keep out a county MPD. On the positive side, the MPD
is an altruistic attempt to help children who are primary
users of parks.
Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue
Alarm Statistics February 2013
Alarms
Fires 4
Rescue/Emergency Medical 49
Service Call 5
Good Intent 6
False Alarm 3
Total Alarms 67
Ambulance Transports
Jefferson Healthcare 16
Harrison Medical Center - Bremerton 11
Harrison Hospital - Silverdale 1
ALNW 1
Total Transports 29
Mutual/Automatic Aid
with Neighboring Districts
Provided 8
Received 2
Total Mutual Aid 10
Message from Chief Brad Martin
Sequestration took place on March 1 and with it came
mandatory across-the-board budget cuts. The full effect,
on the Federal level, will take time to be realized. The full
impact is not completely understood. Each organization
of the government will have to sort through the requirements,
and develop their plans for implementation.
Unfortunately, some cuts to federal programs will have an
impact on the fire service in general. The fire department
relies on grants to assist us with expensive budget items such
as staffing, equipment purchasing/replacement, and prevention
programs. Two predominant grant programs, the Staffing
for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) and
the Assistance to Firefighter Grant (AFG), are affected. These
two grants, funded for 2013 for $208 million dollars, were cut
by $117 million dollars. That makes obtaining funds through
the grants nearly impossible.
In addition to the cuts to the grant programs, Medicare
reimbursement will be cut by 2 percent. For PLFR that
will only be approximately $4,000/year. That is based on
the number of calls and call types that Medicare patients
require. Each fire district will have differing rates dependent
upon their location and population.
With the cuts and furloughs and layoffs of base workers,
it is predicted that business patronage and sales tax
revenues will be dramatically decreased. Fortunately,
and unlike Bremerton and other municipalities, Ludlow
is not dependent upon sales tax revenues. Nevertheless,
our proactive Board of Commissioners and department
personnel have considered the impact of reduced funds
and are working to ensure service levels and staffing
survive the crisis.
Contact me if you have any questions, input or merely
want to make an appointment to come in and talk. I can
be reached by email at brad.martin@plfr.org, or call
360-437-2236.
They Did It Again!
by Linda Karp, Contributing Writer
The Port Ludlow Fire and Rescue was represented
in “The Twenty-second Annual Scott Firefighters
Stairclimb.” Participating were Kurt Van Ness, Scott
Hartley, Rachel Campos, Christopher Holeman and
Robert Novak.
Kurt came in 17 out of 1473 climbers and bettered his
previous time by 13 seconds at 13:17 minutes. Rachel
came in 60 out of 134 female climbers at 25:05 minutes.
The “Scott Climb” benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma
Society whose mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma,
Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma. It is a climb up 69
flights (1311 steps and 788 feet of vertical elevation)
outfitted in 60 pounds of firefighting equipment in the
Columbia Center Building in Seattle.
Port Ludlow has been given one more reason to be proud
of our fine Port Ludlow Fire and Rescue firefighters.
Openings at the Port Ludlow Voice
Do you want to find out about your community and
help your neighbors – all at the same time. The Port
Ludlow Voice is looking for people who are interested
in writing feature articles and/or reporting on local
events and meetings. There are also openings for proof
readers. Experience is helpful but not required. Curiosity,
energy, and knowledge of English grammar are needed.
Applicants must have knowledge of word processing.
The Voice staff are all unpaid volunteers. Interested
parties should contact Bev Browne at 437-8099 or
brownew@bus.orst.edu.