Port of Wilma pays fire coverage

Clarkston Fire Department will, for the first time in two years, receive payment for providing fire coverage to the Port of Wilma.

Commissioners of the Port of Whitman County, which owns the Wilma facility located across the Snake River from Clarkston, approved $12,000 in payments to the department at their regular meeting last Thursday, Jan. 7.

Debbie Snell, facilities manager for the port, said the Port of Wilma Fire Association has not been able to pay the Clarkston Fire Department because it did not have all the information it needed.

Snell administers the fire association’s accounts.

Clarkston Fire Department assesses protection costs based on a formula that factors in fire risk, the number of acres leased and the assessed value of personal property of Wilma tenants.

Snell said the assessed value was the sticking point. The figures provided by the assessors office were under valued and did not include six or seven buildings which have been constructed at Wilma over the past several years.

Without an official assessment, said Snell, Clarkston fire officials could not determine how much to bill the port’s fire association.

All fire bill protection fees incurred by the Wilma fire association are billed to the tenants of the port.

The fire association paid Clarkston $5,000 for 2008 and $8,000 for 2009.

That cost, and an additional $2,000, will be billed back to tenants based on the size of their lot and potential fire danger. The $2,000 will be put into the fire association account for future expenses.

This year is the third in a deal for protection between Clarkston Fire and the Wilma association.