Jacksonville Review – June 2023 issue
Summer used to be my favorite season. Camping trips, canoe rides, lazy days in the garden and long evenings all come to mind. Unfortunately, the anticipation of warm sunny days has now evolved into a lingering sense of dread for many of us because summers now bring a less promising prospect, the onset of fire season.
The good news is that Jacksonville Fire Department and the City of Jacksonville have been working hard to enter fire season better prepared than ever before. Perhaps the most obvious accomplishment is the completion of our new fire station. This state-of-the-art building features living quarters for three shifts of firefighters, office space, training rooms, a workout gym, and a slide to transport firefighters from the living quarters to the engine bay. The station is now the City’s official Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the event of an emergency and can be powered 24/7 by a generator installed on the roof. Much of the construction cost was covered by a seismic safety grant of $1.3 million.
Fire Chief Painter has diligently pursued grants to support the department and has received hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment including thermal cameras, mobile computers, a turnout extractor, hoses, firefighting supplies, and a Holmatro Battery Powered Extrication tool which is used to cut away metal in car accidents. In April, the department was awarded a type 3 Wildland engine as well as funds for increased summer staffing from the Office of the State Fire Marshall (OSFM). In May, OSFM awarded the city funding for Firewise neighborhood dumpsters as well as funding for annual green waste cleanup days for the next three years.
Jacksonville is also benefitting from two large fuel reduction projects. As part of Lomakatsi’s West Bear All Lands Project, $1.5 million of federal funds have been allocated for the Jacksonville area. Much of this work is already under way. As of this writing, there are forty-three landowners/parcels with approximately 600 acres in some phase of implementation in the Jacksonville project footprint, and planning discussions are under way with landowners for an additional 170 acres. In the larger West Bear Project, that includes the Jacksonville project, 3,300 acres are in some stage of work and another 850 acres is being onboarded into the project. The West Bear Project lies south of Highway 238. North of the highway, many local residents worried about the possibility of a lightning strike touching down within the 1400-acre Forest Park igniting a fire which could easily threaten the entire city. Last month Chief Painter learned that Jacksonville had been awarded $500,000 for fuel reduction work in Forest Park funded by the OSFM. Strategic treatment in Forest Park will decrease the risk of catastrophic spread of wildfire.
Thanks to the efforts of volunteer Firewise Community Coordinator, Linda Davis, Jacksonville now boasts 33 certified Firewise communities. More than half of all Jacksonville residents now reside in Firewise communities. Linda and her volunteers are currently in discussion with several additional neighborhoods in the city. If you have questions about Firewise, please contact Jacksonville Fire Department or Linda Davis at 541-690-5688. On May 6, Jacksonville Fire and Jacksonville Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) staged a successful Firewise Community Clean-up Day. With the help of an Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) crew and a chipper, three 40 cubic yard dumpsters of green waste were collected.
Last winter the City Councill approved an updated Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) which guides city procedures in the event of an emergency. Our City Public Works Department has also been eliminating blackberries from public lands and parks. The City of Jacksonville and Jacksonville Fire Department are working hard to keep City residents safe this fire season. Please do your part as well. Signup for local alerts from Jackson County Citizen’s Alert and take steps to reduce risk on your property. For helpful tips on home hardening and fire readiness, visit NFPA.org or the Office of the State Fire Marshall at https://www.oregon.gov/osp/programs/sfm/pages/default.aspx.