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Dora-Sitkum Fire Department News
News update! November 2008
So, what sort of fire hall does this buy?
The rules require the $500,000 Block Grant to be spent on the fire hall only—the Dora Center project has to be kept completely separate. The fire hall will be 64’ by 56’, wood frame, with metal siding and composition roof. Three overhead doors will open onto bays for six trucks. Depending on the success of current fundraising, we may be able to add another two bays and one door, making room for a future large-capacity water truck, as well as room for storage.
The fire hall will have a small room for training. The area in front of the hall will be paved. The building will have heat, lights, and an exhaust system to clear the air when trucks are running. It’s pretty much a no-frills facility—although there will be a basketball hoop.
And what sort of community center?
Although our funds aren’t stretching as far as we had first hoped, there will still be many improvements to the old building, and we hope it will be something the public will enjoy using. A major component will be a new roof over everything. The electrical and plumbing systems will be overhauled, and the bathrooms refurbished. A new well and a new septic system are already in the ground.
The high bay (aka the old gym) will get some daylight. The opening on the east wall where fire trucks came and went will be framed in and fitted with windows and a door. Many new, energy-efficient lights will be installed overhead. The room will be heated by a new electric furnace. Since the high bay can be used for potlucks and other gatherings, double sliding doors will open into the cafeteria area to improve traffic flow between the two spaces. Part of the high bay will be rented by the East Fork Community Church for services.
In the cafeteria area, the old pantry will be removed (storage space will be located in a room now used to store fire equipment) and cabinets will be reconfigured, making the kitchen bigger. The kitchen will be rewired to have more electrical outlets—and fewer tripped breakers. Appliances will be replaced and a new exhaust hood installed.
The library will expand into the room now used mostly by the church. The old fire department office will be added to the library space, and a small addition will provide still more room. There will be carpeting on the floor, more shelves and furniture, and a place for youth activities. Instead of walking outside down the length of the building to enter the library, patrons will come through the front entrance of Dora Center.
Thanks for hanging in there
It has been a long road to get to a point where there is some visible progress. Federal, state, and county entities are involved, as well as architects, engineers, inspectors, and lots of rules and regulations. There is plenty of paperwork, and much of it has to be passed back and forth from desk to desk until it is finally approved (or rejected!) by all parties involved. During the planning phase, a new Oregon law took effect that requires fire stations to have foundations that can resist a strong earthquake. This is an example of a detail that caused considerable delay and extra expense (as well as, it is true, a right burly foundation).
The fire department is very grateful for everyone’s support, generosity, and patience. At a time when many small communities are becoming just ghosts on the map, Dora, Sitkum, and McKinley have come together and are a real going concern—and the future is full of bright prospects.
Other news
• For the duration of the new construction, fire trucks are parked at different locations throughout the district. The fire department is still fully-functioning and ready to respond.
• A scaled-down Dora Public Library is now settled into the cafeteria and open for business. It will be at that location until the new library space is ready—then it will move there, and remodeling can begin on the cafeteria.
• It’s chimney sweeping time! Chimney brushes are available for checkout at the library.
• Any questions or comments can be directed to a board member of the fire department. They are Betty Vaughn, Roland Richmond, David Rose, Ron Rush, and Richard Kirk.
Volunteers Mike Sonnen, Doug Backman, and Tim Gederos work on the new septic system.
Older news from here down
 Dora-Sitkum Rural Fire Protection District Receives
$20,000 from The Oregon Community Foundation
McKinley
Welcome aboard McKinley! It’s great to have you!
McKinley, from Middle Creek bridge east and including places up Cherry Creek, is now part of the Dora-Sitkum Rural Fire Protection District. People of McKinley: Not only do you have fire protection, you have a fire hall and community center in Dora, and please know that we wish to give you a special welcome to attend activities that may go on there!
While our fire department was formed to fight structural fires, we also respond to brush fires. To report a fire, dial 911. The dispatch office in Coquille then sends out a message that is received on pagers carried by volunteer firefighters, who then respond with firefighting equipment to the fire.
Being a part of a fire district should also have a positive effect on how much McKinley residents pay for fire insurance. Some companies won’t even insure structures that aren’t in a fire district. Those people who in the past have found insurance hard to find or afford, might find things have changed dramatically now that they are part of a rural fire protection district.
Thanks to Mike Sonnen of McKinley, for his efforts to get this annexation to happen. And, again, a big welcome to the people of McKinley!
Building Project
Dora-Sitkum RFPD is now in the process of planning—and finding funding for—a major building project. The project includes building a new four-bay fire hall, doubling the size of the library, building a new multi-purpose room, and doing major remodeling and repair to the existing building, which is to be used as a community center.
This is a project with an estimated cost of around $900,000 and, as might be expected in a job this size, the whole process at times moves slowly. (Think loaded dump truck pulling Hungry Mountain). Nonetheless, the project, like the dump truck, is getting steadily closer to where it is heading.
Grants and donations will fund this project—only about $7,000 will come from the fire department’s reserve fund, which was slowly built up from a very much no-frills budget. Local donations and pledges from the Dora Friendly Club, individuals, and businesses currently add up to more than $30,000. This is an incredible show of support. Thanks very much, everyone who has or who will donate time, money or materials to make this thing happen!
These local contributions are doubly valuable, in that the foundations that might give us grants for the rest of the funding consider it very important to see strong local support before they award any grants.
One Grant in Hand, but Not Yet Spendable
A grant award can be as slippery a catch as any native trout, and each one involves different strategy and tackle. Each grant application involves many steps and a good deal of waiting between steps.
Right now, we have already been awarded one grant: $50,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture. These funds will be used mostly for the Community Center and library, but cannot be spent until we have secured more funds from other sources.
This is one of the tricky things about funding this project. the community center/library portion of the project, although made up of many small parts (new heating system, better restrooms, bigger library, etc.), is seen as one big project by the USDA and the Ford Family Foundation (for example). Some grantors want to see that we have lined up enough money and other resources to do the whole job before actually releasing their grant money for us to spend. This means a longer wait before we can get the library/community center show on the road.
Block Grant Has Single Purpose
The single biggest chunk of funding on the horizon is a Block Grant from the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department (which in turn gets the money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.) This grant for $427,000 is actually awarded to Coos County, which then makes it available to us. (Many thanks to County Commissioner Nikki Whitty for working to get this grant for us!)
The Block Grant folks told us recently that we may be awarded this grant within the next two months. Then there is more waiting until we can actually use the money, which will be administered by a professional project administrator.
Grants usually come with strings attached. One string attached to the $427,000 Block Grant, is that it can ONLY be used to build the new fire hall. This grant is not available for our community center or library. Those parts of the building project will be covered by other sources—such as the USDA grant, local contributions, and other grants that are pending, applied for, or on our list to apply for.
We could not have applied for a Block Grant to do any part of the community center/library part of the project, because, for various reasons, in our particular case, these uses did not qualify for this grant. New fire halls do qualify, however, and we ought to be able to build a darn good one!
It’s possible that later this winter or coming spring, one community group or another will be pulling on extra sweaters or dodging water drops from a leaky roof down at the old Dora School–while listening to nails being pounded into a brand-new fire hall–and will wonder about our priorities. It isn’t a matter of priorities. It’s a matter of what grant applications had the earliest deadlines, and what specific things those grants can be spent on.
Stalking the Wily Grant
Grant applications can take quite a bit of time to complete, but we are steadily moving along.
The next grant that we can expect to receive is from the Ford Family Foundation, founded by Kenneth Ford of Roseburg Lumber Co. This matching grant would probably be for $200,000, and would be mostly spent on the community center and library parts of the project.
Among the other foundations we will ask to fund our project are Plum Creek Foundation, The Miller Foundation, The Collins Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, and Oregon Community Foundation. We hope that applying to these and other organizations will result in the funds to do the entire project, and to do it to the full extent we first planned. We have been told that each grant we receive can make our project more attractive to other grantors—possibly because as funding is gathered, the project looks more and more likely to succeed.
Getting this building to happen is an all-volunteer effort, done by amateurs. Nonetheless, with a bit more time and effort, we fully expect the fine old school building in Dora to be fixed up into a fine new fire hall and community center! We can’t say for sure when any given part of the project will be started or completed, because we don’t know. We don’t know how flexible the various foundations will be about releasing funds for just a part of the project. We don’t know how much time the architect will need, or how long it will take to bid out the construction. All we know is we are making slow but steady progress in a fairly complicated process.
Take a Bow!
Ford Family Foundation has told us how impressed they are with the progress of our local fund drive, and with the spirit of the community as a whole. So–you-all step up and take a bow!
And Now a Word From Our Sponsors
If one of our tireless fundraising specialists has not knocked on your door, please consider making a donation of any size to our building project. Make checks payable to Dora-Sitkum RFPD. Send to P.O. Box 164, Myrtle Point, or drop off at the Dora Library. Thanks!
Questions about donations can be directed at Chris Seely, chair of the fundraising committee.
Water Tanks
Dora-Sitkum RFPD is able to buy new equipment and turnouts (the safety clothing worn by firefighters) thanks mainly to one or two government grants per year. The Oregon Department of Forestry recently awarded us around $19,000 to buy various specific items. Some of the equipment we have purchased with this grant are a portable pump, 1,000 feet of fire hose, pagers and radios for volunteers, a winch for the quick-response truck, and more.
Also, using money from this grant, Fire Chief Doug Backman obtained several 2500-gallon poly water tanks. These tanks will be sited throughout the fire district, and will be used for quickly refilling our tender (water tanker truck) in case of a fire. Thanks to attorney Andy Combs for writing up an agreement to be used with the landowners where these tanks will be sited!
Another grant, the AFG, administered by the Department of Homeland Security, has awarded us $12,426 to buy twelve suits for structural firefighters (and you thought regular clothes were expensive…).
Times and Places
Fire Board meetings—which are public meetings—are held on the first Wednesday of the month, at 7:30 P. M., and are held in the fire hall (old Dora School) cafeteria.
Fire practice is on the first and third Tuesday of the month, at the fire hall. If you think you might like to be a firefighter (or help out in some less physical way), come to a practice and glom onto Chief Doug Backman.
Board Members of Dora-Sitkum RFPD: Richard Kirk, Chair; Dennis Svenpladsen, Vice-Chair; Betty Vaughn, Treasurer; Roland Richmond, Secretary; Glenn Logsdon, Member-at Large
Fire Chief, Doug Backman; Assistant Fire Chief, Joe Peterson; Safety Officer, Sally Svenpladsen; Fabrication Specialist, Mike Sonnen; Procurement Specialist, David Tucker; Fundraising chair, Chris Seely; Grants Coordinator, Linda Kirk
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