Voters in Medical Lake and Spokane County Fire District 3 voted to merge the city’s fire department with the district Tuesday night.
In Fire District 3, the measure passed with 71.3% of the vote. Medical Lake voters passed the measure with 74.1% of the vote. Both measures needed a simple majority or 50% to pass.
“We’ve been planning as you can imagine for over a year now,” Fire District 3 Chief Cody Rohrbach said. “We are ready to get to work.”
Rohrbach was not surprised at the results of the election.
“We’ve been hearing a lot of optimism and support,” Rohrbach said. “We’ve been waiting patiently for tonight.”
City officials worked ahead of the election to put an interlocal agreement into place so that Fire District 3 could take over servicing Medical Lake immediately.
The station will be renovated to meet code requirements for overnight staffing. Staff will be a mixture of career firefighters and volunteers, with no one currently volunteering at the department losing that opportunity.