Fire district officials and community leaders are peering into the future to anticipate shifting demands for fire and medical services in Keizer.
A group meet recently to start work on a new 10-year strategic plan for the Keizer Fire District.
Fire Chief Ryan Russell said the plan gives the district a “firm direction” to to better serve the community. He compared the absence of a plan to sailing without a rudder.
“Really, it’s adapting to the community, I guess, and making sure we’re providing the service that they need and that they want,” Russell said.
Russell said the district’s previous strategic plan is outdated, developed over a decade ago.
Betty Hart, board chair for the fire district, noted that the district has high demand for service, particularly medical service due to a high number of senior living facilities and aging population. She said the strategic plan will allow the district to prepare for increases in demand.
“The strategic plan will help us identify what our needs are going forward, and help us plan how we’re going to manage that,” Hart said.
The district is still in early stages of developing a plan. Russell said board members and staff will continue to meet in the coming months to refine the plan, and he hopes the final draft will be ready for the board in June.
District board members and employees developed initial goals during a kickoff meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 4. That included fiscal and resource management, improving community outreach, maintaining close internal and external communications and refining the district’s community risk reduction program.
“Our next meeting is to kind of hone in on those goals and narrow them down to the words we want, and then start setting objectives to achieve the goals,” Russell said.
Hart said that she is “always concerned” with fiscal management as well as community relationships.
“Managing the resources we have and determining what resources we need, and how we might get those, is a pretty important thing to me as a member of the board,” Hart said.
The district, established in 1948, is separate from the city of Keizer government and operates on property taxes and revenue from medical services.The rough goals were developed based on an analysis of strengths and weaknesses, which district officials considered in collaboration with citizens invited to participate.
Russell said the discussions highlighted the district’s staff and community support as strengths. Weaknesses included the need to focus on attracting and retaining quality employees and addresingt uncertainties around funding.
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