Today's headlines:
- Fire trucks are double the cost they used to be. That's making Spokane reconsider which calls its fire department responds to.
- Washington is creating a new public authority to link its clean energy sources to actual power consumers.
- Another El Niño weather system will influence our weather this year. What will that look like next summer and winter?
Plus, the River Tech School in Post Falls burned down last week. Everything inside—furniture, books, music instruments, and equipment—was lost. SPR's Doug Nadvornick talks with founder and principal Dan Hegeland to hear what it will take to get classes restarted soon.
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The price of fire trucks and other heavy duty vehicles has doubled over the past decade. Some blame Covid. Others blame private equity.
No matter what, SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports the situation is putting citizens in Spokane and beyond at risk.
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Spokane needs to replace its aging fire fleet. But one fire truck nowadays costs around $2 million.
Spokane’s chief financial officer Matt Boston says that’s twice what it cost 10 years ago.
Matt Boston: “There is no possible way for many of the municipalities across the country to keep up.”
Last year, the International Association of Fire Fighters asked the Department of Justice for an antitrust investigation into three heavy vehicle manufacturers.
In its letter, it said private equity firms had “aggressively consolidated” the market so that it’s now dominated by three companies—REV Group, OshKosh, and Rosenbauer.
The DOJ hasn’t responded. Last month, the city of Milwaukee filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court against those three groups, alleging they colluded to raise prices, restrict supply, and increase wait times.
The city of Los Angeles filed a similar lawsuit that also included Boise Mobile Equipment and the private equity firm American Industry Partners.
Defendants have previously claimed no wrongdoing, blaming costs on inflation and supply chain interruptions since COVID.
Council President Betsy Wilkerson worried at last week’s budget meeting what will happen if Spokane isn’t able to replace its fire fleet.
Betsy Wilkerson: “One of our fire trucks had to be towed. The last thing you want to see is your fire truck being towed. Doesn't send the best message.”
To decrease wear on vehicles, Boston said Spokane may have to reconsider what the fire department responds to—definitely fires, but maybe not behavioral health or medical calls.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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The green energy revolution is rolling in Washington, but advocates say there’s one hang up. Producers can’t easily get the energy they make to their customers.
Groups that advocate for renewable energy are celebrating the passage of a bill in Olympia that establishes a new Washington Electric Transmission Authority.
Natalie Manitius is a senior associate at the Clean Air Task Force.
Natalie Manitius: “It's needed because Washington has a very slow history of buildout of transmission infrastructure, and we have a lot of renewable energy projects and other clean energy projects that are sitting in the queue that are waiting to be connected to the electric transmission grid.”
She says the new organization will help coordinate new transmission projects and perhaps even find funding for them.
Governor Bob Ferguson hasn’t yet signed the bill, but Manitius says his staff members testified in support of it.
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Despite the wet weather we’ve been experiencing, Washington’s snow pack remains at just over half of normal. And climate observers say conditions are likely to get worse. KNKX environment reporter Bellamy Pailthorp has the story.
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This winter has been one of our warmest and driest on record.
Karin Bumbaco: “October through February was the third warmest start to the water year on record in Washington. And those records are long. They go back to 1895.”
Karin Bumbaco is Washington’s deputy state climatologist. She says the warm temps meant precipitation in the mountains falling as rain, not snow.
Even after the turnaround this past week, the snow pack is still about 61% of normal. Meanwhile, the Climate Prediction Center issued an El Niño watch and a seasonal outlook for May through April.
Karin Bumbaco: “They're expecting higher chances of above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation. And so, yes. that's even before this El Nino will kick in.”
The “watch” indicates that El Nino conditions could take hold as soon as this summer, meaning more warmer than normal temps followed by another drier than normal winter.
Climatologists say this all means we can expect lower stream flows, potential stress on water supplies and increased risk of wildfires.
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March Madness has ended for Inland Northwest teams.
The Gonzaga men’s team was the last to be eliminated. The Bulldogs lost Saturday in a back-and-forth second round NCAA tournament game to the Texas Longhorns, 74-68. It was the Zags’ final game as a member of the West Coast Conference. Next year, Gonzaga joins Washington State and seven other teams as a member of the revamped Pac-12 Conference.
The Gonzaga women’s and the University of Idaho men’s and women’s teams also played in the NCAA tournament, but lost first round games.
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A Post Falls private school that burned a week ago will resume classes in another building next week.
The River Tech School had been located in the River Church where flames broke out early in the morning on March 15.
Dan Hegeland is the principal and founder of River Tech, a conservative Christian school for students in grades K through 12.
DH: We're a school of performing arts and technology. We've put on about 10 different plays there. In fact, we were in the middle of a Sound of Music play. The fire marshal says that the building’s lost and everything inside, everything we had, 70 desks, chairs, furniture, all of our books, all of our music instruments, and our tech equipment, just all of it is lost.
DN: Now Hegeland and his staff are in scramble mode as they secure the things to resume the school year a week from today.
DH: Every one of our six staff members is staying. We've already had a parent meeting with 31 families. The atmosphere was hopeful and encouraging. We've already located a very potential place. And we expect to be back right after spring break on March 30th to finish out the school year together. And we have insurance. We have started a fundraiser. And we're just having momentum and we're back on our feet. And we fully expect to finish out this year and then to be able to continue again next school year.
DN: The new place you’re going to move into, is it an adequate facility?
DH: Yeah, it's very adequate. I can't really tell it quite yet because we haven't signed the papers, but it is adequate. It's actually quite similar to where we were before with a similar design. And it has classrooms and everything. It was built to be a school as well. So as far as facility is concerned, we're good to go to finish out the year.
DN: So where are you going to build the new school?
DH: I love you ask that. In fact, if if your listeners, anyone out there has a facility that has school zoning, please reach out to us at Learn@RiverTech.me. So while we have solved the likely solved the immediate need to finish out the school year, we have not yet solved where we're going to be after the summer. So we really want to hear from any facility that has school zoning churches and so on that could, you know, give us a temporary space for next school year while the River Church rebuilds, which I imagine will probably take at least a year. That's my expectation.
DN: And then you would continue in the River Church once it’s rebuilt?
DH: That’s my expectation, yes. We've worked together for the last five years and it's been an incredible relationship. And we're yeah, that's that's my expectation.
One thing I wanted really to communicate to your listeners is that, you know, when you read about it now, all you read about is the fire. And it's easy to get the idea that, OK, that was that. Our school's knocked out. The school's going to close down. But that is not the case. The school is a vision. It's our staff. It's our community. It's our family. It's our children. And we haven't been knocked out. We're on our feet and we will rebuild. And actually, it's very fitting for Easter, which is just around the corner. Easter is a resurrection story. And we will revive and resurrect River Tech again.
DN: Dan Hegelund is the founder and principal of River Tech School in Post Falls. The school will receive money from a fundraiser to be held Thursday night at Triple Play. You can learn more about that through the school.
SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Bellamy Pailthorp and Doug Nadvornick.
Doug Nadvornick hosted and produced today's show. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
