Tribe takes over fire, emergency services in West Valley area

By Dean Rhodes

Smoke Signals editor

More than a decade ago, if a fire or emergency medical situation occurred in the Grand Ronde area, residents had to wait 10 to 15 minutes for West Valley Fire District personnel to arrive from Willamina.

Now, the situation has sort of flip-flopped.

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde has assumed control of both fire and emergency medical services in the West Valley Fire District, including the station in Willamina.

“West Valley is no longer providing service and the Tribe is providing service, by contract, to the entire West Valley Fire and EMS service area,” said Tribal Department of Emergency Services Chief Steve Warden.

During its Dec. 15 meeting, Tribal Council approved a three-year contract for the Tribe to provide expanded fire and emergency medical services in the area and take full ownership of an ambulance that belonged to the fire district.

West Valley will pay the Grand Ronde Tribe $50,000 a year for the first two years and $65,000 for the third year, and West Valley will turn over a 2021 ambulance to the Tribe in addition to all of its equipment.

The agreement, which was approved by the Yamhill County Commissioners, also exempts the Tribe from answering to the West Valley Fire District Board, which is currently working out a financial divorce after the failed merger of the Sheridan, Southwest Polk and West Valley fire districts.

Administrative personnel overseeing the Grand Ronde Fire Department are charged with the same responsibility for the West Valley Fire District, which has six other personnel working out of its Main Street Station in Willamina.

Warden is assisted by Administrative Services Battalion Chief Damon Schulze, a former McMinnville Fire Department employee, and fellow battalion chiefs Jason Crowe, Sean Hoxie and R.C. Mock.

The Tribe has nine volunteer firefighter/emergency medical service staff numbers and answers calls at any time of day with three ambulances, one of which is assigned to the Grand Ronde station on McPherson Road, three engines, a truck and water tender.

“With the help of the Tribe, we have staffing 24/7,” said West Valley Fire District Board Chair Mike Alger. “We have both a fire engine and medic unit in our station.”

On Friday, Oct. 1, Grand Ronde officially became one of only a handful of Tribes in the United States to operate its own fire and emergency services department.

That’s when operations were formally handed off from the West Valley Fire District to the Grand Ronde Tribal Emergency Services Department, the culmination of two years of work and more than three years ahead of schedule.

The Tribe expressed its desire to add fire to its list of sovereign nation public safety responsibilities in December 2019.

The Grand Ronde Tribe built the $1 million fire station and it officially opened in June 2010, reducing response times for West Valley Fire District personnel who used to be dispatched from the station in Willamina for fire and emergency medical calls.

Includes information from the Yamhill County News-Register.