Private ambulance company American Medical Response (AMR) announced it will lay off 130 employees in Pierce County at the end of the month, potentially impacting emergency service in some areas. According to West Pierce Fire & Rescue spokesperson Jenny Weekes, private companies like AMR contract with hospitals, calling ambulances as needed to transport patients to other facilities.
- PUB DATE: 1/11/2023 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KING-TV NBC 5 Seattle

VIDEO: County commissioners are continuing to push for the state to follow the county's solar moratorium. The Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council has the High Top and Ostrea solar projects on an expedited process or approval. Commissioners sent a letter in November to the council asking them not to proceed with the projects until codes for large solar farms were formed.
- PUB DATE: 1/11/2023 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIMA-TV CBS/CW+ Yakima

While there won’t be ice-coated roads or wind-driven power outages, the latest weather system will feature drenching rain that could result in shallow landslides and urban flooding. Here’s how KIRO 7 Meteorologist Nick Allard says it will unfold. A large area of low pressure is pushing more atmospheric river moisture into California.
- PUB DATE: 1/11/2023 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIRO-TV CBS 7 Seattle

The Spokane Valley Fire Department will be conducting its annual live ice rescue training on Newman Lake this week. There will be two sessions; one is in the classroom and the other is live training on the lake. The live training will be from Tuesday through Thursday. The training will include victim retrieval and recovery, which will last about two hours.
- PUB DATE: 1/10/2023 3:37:17 PM - SOURCE: KXLY-TV ABC 4 Spokane

Norfolk (MA) residents at a special town meeting Wednesday will vote on a proposed $25 million new fire station that has been planned for years, thesunchronicle.com reported.

The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the auditorium of King Philip Middle School on King Street; the fire station is the only business going before voters.

A special election is also slated for Jan. 28 for voters to decide on a tax hike overriding state tax-levy limiting law Proposition 2 1/2 to pay for the station, as well as fill a vacant select board seat, the report said.

If the project is approved by both town meeting and voters at the election, construction could begin in the spring with completion anticipated in fall 2024, according to the report.

A new station has been estimated to cost $25 million, a sum which would be offset by about $3.3 million left over from a 2016 appropriation for new police and fire stations, the report said. The fire station was never built because of cost overruns with the police station.

Plans call for the new fire station to be built on the Main Street site of the present fire station, which is outdated and undersized, according to the report. A new fire station building committee has been planning the project for nearly two years, and has held forums and tours of the fire station, which had also been the old police station.

For more information, visit www.norfolk.ma.us, where there is a detailed town meeting warrant article about the fire station project. Also, the building committee has a page on the town website with in-depth information, including answers to frequently asked questions, presentations, documents, about the current station, and meeting agendas and minutes.