City, Potlatch EMS contract is no more

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Story Published: Oct 3, 2008 at 11:02 PM PST

Story Updated: Nov 21, 2008 at 2:19 AM PST

By Matt Loveless

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LEWISTON - The Lewiston City Council voted this week to terminate EMS contracts with entities outside of the city limits and also ended an agreement with Potlatch Corporation.

In July and August, Lewiston Fire was on a month-to-month mutual aid agreement with the mill. Officials said Potlatch was paying $10,000 a month during that time, and the council asked Potlatch to pay $20,000 a month for that service to continue. Potlatch counter-offered with $5,000.

"Whether it be $5,000 or $10,000 a month, it's considerably less than what others are charged based upon the formulas the city has historically used," said Lewiston City Manager Jay Krauss.

According to Potlatch, the cost for the year would have exceeded $650,000, and Krauss said that, too, is according to formula.

"The city council, I believe offered what it felt was a fair interim number to carry the parties forward as they negotiate further," said Krauss.

Krauss said the city is willing to negotiate, but that a Lewiston-Potlatch firefighting agreement is unlikely at this time.

"We would have gladly continued to have some kind of relationship with Potlatch and even revisit formulas," said Krauss. "Again, there is an interest of the taxpayers, and those who are already paying for service based on formulas that need to be balanced with the demands of Potlatch."

Officials at Potlatch said their counter-offer was more than fair.

Potlatch Spokesman Matt Van Vleet said Friday the mill is fine with paying for any costs associated with services used, as well as paying the fire department$ 5,000 a month for department needs. But he said it is not in the position to pay a total of $650,000 for a backup system.

In the two months since the original agreement ended in July, Potlatch has not sent out a mutual aid call to Lewiston.

Van Vleet said Potlatch will continue to have fire protection and would be happy to send help into Lewiston, if needed, at no charge.

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