BEAVERTON CITY COUNCIL AND

TUALATIN VALLEY FIRE & RESCUE DISTRICT BOARD

JOINT MEETING

OCTOBER 13 , 2003

CALL TO ORDER:

The Joint Dinner Meeting of the Beaverton City Council and the Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue (TVF&R) District Board was called to order by Mayor Rob Drake in the First Floor Conference Room of City Hall, 4755 SW Griffith Drive , Beaverton , Oregon at 5:45 p.m.

INTRODUCTIONS:

Present from the City were Mayor Drake, Couns. Betty Bode, Dennis Doyle, Fred Ruby, and Forrest Soth. Coun. Cathy Stanton was excused. City staff present were Attorney Alan Rappleyea , Engineering Director Tom Ramisch , Transportation Engineer Randy Wooley , Police Chief David Bishop, Interim Human Resources Manager Jim Hough and City Recorder Sue Nelson . Present from TVF&R were: Board President Larry Goff, Board Members Carol Gearin and Brian Clapton. District staff present were Fire Chief Jeff Johnson, Assistant Chiefs Kirk Hale and Paul LeSage, Deputy Fire Marshal Jerry Renfro, Division Chief Tim Burrow, Executive Assistant Alec Jensen, and Jeff Grunewald. The Valley Times Reporter Christina Lent and The Oregonian Reporter Dick Colby were also present.

GENERAL DISCUSSION:

Deployment :

Assistant Chief Paul LeSage presented an overview of the factors TVF&R used to determine resource deployment. He reviewed the analysis and statistical modeling used to assess risks, to determine equipment purchases, staffing and deployment levels, and to deal with community growth and education. He noted all calls were geographically coded to determine compliance with response time goals within the City. He explained the analysis factors:

1) Determining the risk of an event, including the probability, consequences and desired level of response;

2) Tracking service demands per station to determine resource assignments;

3) Risk Hazard and Valuation, to determine what resources were needed for a major fire or event in a particular area;

4) Tracking the times of the calls;

5) Analyzing the areas and types of structures;

6) Locating traffic calming devices (which slow response times);

7) Setting service level objectives to reduce risk;

8) Planning the distribution of fire stations (goal was to reach 80% of all incidents within six minutes of contact by dispatch, which meant stations need to be located within five minutes travel time);

9) Determining concentration of staff and equipment, so that full fire resources were at the incident location within 14 minutes, 80% of the time;

10) Response reliability (how many times each station was able to respond to a call in its first-due area; goal was 80-85% response reliability); and

11) Task analysis for fire engine staff (a typical residential fire requires 20-24 firefighters and four trucks on scene within 14 minutes, 80% of the time).

LeSage explained they barely met the five-minute travel time now because of traffic and infrastructure. He said they were able to achieve the response time s tand ards in the core Beaverton area, but there was some erosion in the Brockman Road and Beaverton-Hillsdale area. He said they were not sure of the reasons for the decline but the demographics of the neighborhoods with speed bumps were a hindrance. He referred to Brockman where there were traffic calming devices and infrastructure.

There was discussion about the problem with motorists ignoring fire engine sirens and not moving out of the way.

Police Chief Bishop explained if the Police Department received a report of a vehicle failing to give the right-of-way to a fire engine, the Department would send a letter to the registered owner letting them know they were in violation as a warning. He said it was not uncommon, if a patrol vehicle was in the area when a fire engine was on a run, to give two or three citations to those who violated the right-of-way.

LeSage concluded by explaining fire departments were now governed very tightly by Federal government and OSHA standards.

Speed Bumps

Randy McCourt, DKS Associates, presented TVF&R's Neighborhood Traffic Calming Measure Policy. He explained how the policy was developed and noted they worked with Washington County agencies, TVF&R and local agency traffic engineers. He noted the goals of the policy were to: 1) Maintain acceptable emergency response times; 2) Establish interagency coordination; and 3) Plan for future response routes.

McCourt explained two policies were adopted under the goal of maintaining acceptable response times. The first was to adopt recommended practices for traffic calming measures, which were appropriate for different route classifications. The second was to adopt an emergency response map. He reviewed the traffic calming measures recommended by TVF&R for primary, secondary and non-emergency routes. He said preferable traffic calming measures were street trees, curb extensions, medians and pavement textures, because they do not have substantial impact on response times. He added features such as speed bumps and traffic circles, were prioritized to give people a sample of different measures available, if the preferred measures were not being used. The best method would be determined from the standpoint of neighborhood livability and public safety response times. He noted one preferred tool was the speed cushion with median (Sample 4 in record).

McCourt explained regarding Interagency Coordination, they would be working with local agencies to adopt TVF&R policies to provide consistency in the region. He said they were also working to get TVF&R approval when non-s tand ard approaches were used and to allow TVF&R to verify construction was to s tand ard. He explained a GIS map of all traffic calming measures would be maintained and TVF&R would designate a traffic calming liaison to work with the local agencies.

McCourt noted regarding the goal to Plan for Future Response Routes, they were working to balance connectivity with provisions for traffic calming. He explained when neighborhoods with poor connections added traffic calming measures, this impacted fire response times. He said their intent was to ensure that when neighborhoods consider traffic calming devices, they also have two or three ways to access the neighborhood. He stressed when there was only one way to reach an area, care needed to be taken as to the type of calming device used. He added there was a need to maintain minimum roadway cross sections for streets that were consistent with emergency response, engineering and residential needs (DLCD Neighborhood Street Design Guidelines).

McCourt concluded by noting TVF&R was in the process of adopting these policies. He said they were also working to assist other local agencies to adopt and integrate these policies into their transportation plans, codes and design standards.

There was general discussion on these issues.

Transportation Engineer Randy Wooley stated he was happy to see these policies being adopted; they would be very helpful.

Mayor Drake thanked the Board and District staff for the information.

ADJOURNMENT:

The meeting was adjourned at 6:50 p.m.

 


______________________________
Sue Nelson, City Recorder


 

APPROVAL:

Approved this 3rd day of November, 2003.

__________________________________
Rob Drake, Mayor