Reality check for Whitefish Fire Service Area

It’s time for a reality check. In last week’s article “Whitefish Fire Service Area pitching plans for fee increase”, statements were made that mask the reasons for not solving the many problems faced by the WFSA and in meeting the needs of the residents. 

The WFSA covers an area almost as large as the city of Boise, Idaho, yet there is not one fire station in the entire 75 sq. mile area. They have left huge swaths of the area unprotected, most notably the huge gap in coverage between the Whitefish city limits and Farm to Market. 

That gap in coverage has also led to what is now a huge and growing problem that’s not being addressed. Some residents of that area are losing their homeowner’s insurance, some are unable to sell their homes because the prospective buyer is unable to secure insurance, and some people’s premiums have doubled or tripled.  

Not only is that large gap the most vulnerable to mass destruction from wildfires, but since our prevailing wind comes from the west, a large wildfire could likely engulf all or part of Whitefish as well. Just ask the people who lived in Palisades, California how that works. 

Several priorities are noted in the article. However, those priorities have been developed in a vacuum. They need to do the hard work that’s needed to do a 5-year strategic plan to consider future needs and to determine if they’ll have the money to fund them.   

Can you imagine what would happen to a business that made decisions that, as is noted in the article, are “short term fixes for long term problems” without doing any planning for the future? The article states it very clearly – “we’re like a dog chasing its tail”. 

Short term fixes for long term problems almost always prove to be ill considered. 

Their first priority is to fund several firefighters for the city of Whitefish. Their second priority is to add living quarters to the garage at Hodgson and Whitefish Stage. The cost estimate? Over a million dollars. The WFSA’s budget projects that they’ll have $1,125,000 at the end of June, so they’ll have little money left for any other needs. That’s a lot of money to spend without first producing a long-range strategic plan.  

Why there is even any kind of facility at that location is a mystery. That area is already well-covered by three fire stations. Sure, it will shave a few minutes off response times for those living in that area, but the WFSA continues to neglect the needs of people they serve in the west, where response times are upwards of 30 minutes. Why the WFSA has chosen to spend almost all of their money on Hodgson instead of placing a station in the huge gap west of town is a real head shaker.  

The WFSA has produced a document that they’ve labeled “strategic plan”. However, it bears no resemblance whatsoever to a true strategic plan. A strategic plan is a rigorous, well-structured process that covers at least a 5-year time frame. The WFSA needs to do that before they spend one penny on short term solutions to long term problems and to stop “chasing their tail”. 

Last year, the WFSA attempted to increase their fee (tax) by going to the voters with a petition to become a district. The petition only received a fraction of the amount of signatures needed. They make every excuse in the book for that failure, but it’s clearly due to one thing and one thing only - the fact that they had no well-conceived plan as to what to do with the additional funds, so voters denied them.  

The article states that the petition failed because “everybody wants a fire station”. Well, yeh, so why hasn’t the WFSA built any? 

The WFSA board is now planning to go around the voters to beg the county commissioners to allow them to increase their fees – a request that’s already been denied by the voters. I couldn’t agree more with the statement in the article that “the commissioners will be reluctant to grant a rate increase.” The commissioners understand the vital importance of first having a mandate from the voters and for producing a robust strategic plan before the tax is increased by a successful petition campaign. 

At the February 2026 WFSA board meeting, one of the board members stated that "the WFSA board is not currently in a deficit but could be if funding is not secured.” Why would such an important board put themselves in that kind of a position? Lack of planning?  

Two very dedicated and highly qualified people are candidates for the WFSA board in the election that will start this week - David Ordway and Brian Cole. Both have had successful business careers and Brian has served as a volunteer firefighter. They care. They will, first and foremost, do the hard work to make sure that the long-term needs of the residents are met. They will insist on developing a long-range plan. 

Marshall Friedman, Whitefish