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I Jonathan K. SitkincHMEttK s'lf,,l,T"$,0AVtsr, lrrron*ev| .r isitkinochmeilk.com <br />District due to BNSF railroad track blockages, frequent winter highway closures, disabled semi- <br />trucks due to the lack of County snow plowing, construction work, and general interstate traffic. <br />There is only one way in and out of the Project site. if the County does not require two public <br />accesses into the development. As a result, the property owners will not have EMS or fire <br />responses when lhe single-access road is blocked. The EIS does not appear to have <br />adequately addressed nor reviewed this significant public health anO safety consideralion of the <br />Project's impacts on existing services and limitations on site access. <br />The Project is a substantial development within a largely rural area. There are presenly an <br />estimated 480 full-time and parttime residents within the District. The Project is estimated to <br />add 240 new residents based on the housing proposad, not considering RV occupancy. The <br />design and narrow layout of the internal road network within the Project appears to limit <br />apparatus access and turnaround, <br />ln 2019, the District experienced approximately 90 Emergency Medical Service ("EMS') only <br />response calls, and a total of approximately 140 callouts. tn 2020, the District experienced <br />approximately 95 EMS only response calls, with a total of approximatety 1S0 total calls. <br />The District estimates that the Project will increase demand for callouts by 30-40%, thereby <br />increasing the demand on existing volunteers, increasing the need for new volunteers, requiring <br />new apparalus including a new ladder truck, and potentially a new station on the north side of l- <br />90 to address the previously discussed road closures and better proximity to the project. <br />Currently, lhe District has between 6-7 emergency medical volunteer technicians for a lotal of <br />18 volunteers, most of which work fult-time outside of the Districl, so more volunteers and <br />EMT's will be required as a result of the Project. The District is not aware of any developer that <br />has been able to assure any sustainable volunteer base necessary to meet the requiremenls to <br />serve the District. <br />The District has not completed a full assessment of the implications on the non-residential <br />commercial operations proposed as part of the Project. These types of callouts could increase <br />the projected demand for service of the District much higher than the 3O4O% estimate and <br />would include hazmat and chemicalabatement situations. <br />Currently, when a callout occurs, and the District has the volunteer personnelto respond, the <br />District is out of service for a typical response to accept another call for approximately 3 hours <br />per incident, assuming the site is accessible. Currently, the District estimates its out of service <br />time period equates lo 130-150 days per year. With an increase in service demands by the <br />Project, the District estimates that this will increase to approximatelyl60-200 days of out of <br />service time, wilhout factoring in the lack of road access to the Project which would be <br />additional oul of service time. lmpacts such as non-residential commercial callout demand will <br />cause a further increase in the out of servlce time. This out of service time does noi factor in <br />any EMS transporls, as most transports are provided by the Kittitas County Hospital District. <br />ln addition to EMS and fire response, the District also provides wildland/wildfire response due to <br />adjacency on all sides of the District. As you have likely noted from local and regional <br />newspapers, wildland fires are frequently occurring in residentialdevelopments located in rural <br />Page 2