WASHINGTON TERRACE — Creating a unified fire district serving Riverdale, Washington Terrace and South Ogden would improve service in the three southern Weber County cities, a review of the preliminary proposal shows.

But it would require a potentially significant boost in spending by Washington Terrace, which currently has the smallest fire department of the three locales, and that possibility has Washington Terrace Mayor Mark Miller sounding a cautionary message.

“Our residents are going to have to come up with a lot of money,” Miller said at a gathering in Washington Terrace of leaders and fire officials from the three cities. “We’re not a rich community, so we’re going to have to ponder on that.”

That said, he sees the upside of the plan, and Riverdale Fire Chief Jared Sholly put the focus on the improvement in fire protection and ambulance service that would result from unifying firefighting and emergency medical services operations. Notably, creating a unified district and augmenting existing service, would reduce firefighter response times to the East Bench area of Riverdale and trim EMS response times to Washington Terrace — now served by ambulances out of Ogden — from around seven-and-a-half minutes to about half that.

“We’re trying to fill in a hole,” Sholly said. The unified fire district would be akin to the Weber Fire District or North View Fire District, which each serve multiple Weber County communities.

Administrators and fire officials from the three adjoining cities have been meeting on-and-off for the past year and a half to discuss the notion of consolidation and they gathered Tuesday to hear results of a study into the possibility, conducted by Zions Public Finance. Though the potential cost increase in Washington Terrace would be the greatest among the three cities, the city “would see the greatest increase in service levels through the addition of full-time firefighters to its station as well as improved ambulance response times,” the report said.

The improved service for Washington Terrace — and part of the increased cost — would stem from converting Washington Terrace’s firehouse into a full-time operation, not just part-time. That would entail hiring of full-time or part-time firefighters instead of relying on volunteers. Moreover, the city would be able to tap the services of locally based ambulances, not more distant Ogden City ambulances, as is currently the case.

The Zions study said the three-city department, if created, would cost about $5.16 million to run in its first year, with expenses growing to around $6.03 million by its fifth year, including capital costs of $400,000 to $467,943 each year.

It didn’t spell out current costs of running the three independent fire stations, but a review of budgets for 2017-2018 for the three cities shows that they had spending plans totaling $3.08 million for 2017-2018 — $1.52 million in Riverdale, $1.3 million in South Ogden and $256,443 in Washington Terrace.

However, the two sets of figures — which don’t factor revenue generated by ambulance service — aren’t completely comparable. The 2017-2018 figures include just minimal capital costs for the three cities, tempering the numbers. And because Washington Terrace currently relies on volunteers (who receive a minimal stipend) and outsources EMS services, resulting in no ambulance costs, the city’s current costs are much lower than what they would be under a consolidated department.

Sholly figures the overall financial difference going to a unified district would be “a wash.” But the level of service would spike because of reduced response times made possible by sharing the four firehouses that serve the three locales, the increased ability to share fire equipment and the conversion of the Washington Terrace firehouse into a full-time operation. The South Ogden Fire Department operates two fire houses while Washington Terrace and Riverdale maintain one each.

Other Zions figures show that the theoretical municipal property tax bill on a $250,000 home in Riverdale would drop under unification, from around $271.13 to $247.81. The bill would bump up in South Ogden, from $231.24 to $247.81 while the jump would be the steepest in Washington Terrace, from $127.26 to $247.81.

The mechanism to finance the unified district, should the proposal move forward, has yet to be determined.

‘HOT-BUTTON TOPIC’

Regardless of any benefits, it’s no sure thing that the three cities move ahead and create a unified district.

“This is going to be a hot-button topic,” Sholly predicted.

Tom Hanson, the city manager in Washington Terrace, where the scrutiny may be fiercest given the larger potential financial impact to residents, said the city has to do something to address fire protection in the city and deal with the difficulty in recruitment of firefighters. And Miller, the Washington Terrace mayor, emphasized the import of continued debate and discussion among local leaders.

“This is an important decision. My suggestion is you take a month, mull it over,” he told the assembled leaders Tuesday.

He’d like to get a gauge of support from each city by September, but change, if it’s to happen, may not be immediate.

“It would take a while to implement it once you pull the trigger on it. I don’t see that in the near future,” he said.