A community investment that will save lives

On Thursday, September 17, I stood in front of Station 17 on West Malaga Road and watched something happen that I've been looking forward to for a long time: career firefighters moving back into a station that has, for the better part of a decade, depended almost entirely on the dedication of our volunteers.

I want to use this space to explain why that moment mattered, and why I think every resident of the Wenatchee Valley should care about what happened in Malaga on September 17.

Station 17 has a history. For ten years, career crews staffed that building under an agreement with Chelan County. In 2019, as call volume grew elsewhere in our district, we made the difficult decision to move those crews to our newly built Station 13 on Squilchuck Road. Malaga went back to relying primarily on volunteers, the incredible men and women who have never stopped answering the call, even without the resources of a fully staffed station behind them.

I want to be clear about something: bringing career firefighters back to Malaga is not a statement about our volunteers. It's the opposite. It's building on the foundation they held together. I think often about a wildland fire near Colockum last week, where a volunteer firefighter, with his own apparatus staged at his home was on scene minutes before any other crew could arrive. That's the kind of commitment this community has always had. Our job now is to give that commitment more support.

That support came through an unusual and, frankly, generous partnership. The Wenatchee Valley Fire Department invested $1.5 million to renovate Station 17 so it can house modern apparatus and the crew assigned to it. Microsoft, which has operated in Central Washington for more than two decades and is now developing its first datacenter campus in Malaga, is contributing an additional $1.5 million over three years to fund three career firefighter positions at the station, under an agreement that runs through the end of 2027. Microsoft invested in people. We invested in the building. Together, we invested in Malaga.

What does that mean in practical terms? It means shorter response times, for medical emergencies, structure fires, vehicle collisions, and wildland fires alike. In this profession, minutes are not an abstraction. Minutes are the difference between a good outcome and a tragic one. Having trained career staff and equipment based in Malaga itself, rather than routed in from farther away, brings help closer to the people who need it.

None of this happened overnight, and none of it happened because of any one entity. I want to credit my predecessor, former Chief Brian Brett, who saw the value of restoring career staffing in Malaga years ago and did the work of building the relationships that made this agreement possible. Much of what we celebrated last month began before I became chief. I've simply had the privilege of standing here and seeing that work bear fruit. I also want to recognize Microsoft's Anne Hessburg and Lisa Karstetter, who helped carry this partnership from an idea to a signed agreement and, eventually, the community celebration. Projects like this don't just happen. They require people willing to build relationships, work through disagreements, and stay committed to something bigger than any single organization.

The celebration itself brought together Malaga residents, first responders, elected officials, and community partners, Chelan County, the Chelan Douglas Regional Port Authority, the Malaga Water District, and the Malaga-Colockum Community Council among them for a tour of the fire station, a look at the Microsoft datacenter site under construction, and an evening of food and conversation. Microsoft also donated $25,000 to the Wildfire Community Foundation of North Central Washington, which helps families affected by wildfires, a reminder that this partnership extends beyond bricks and staffing agreements into the broader safety of our region.

I've spent my career believing that public safety is a shared responsibility; between government, private partners, and the residents who show up for each other in the moments that matter most. What happened in Malaga this fall is proof of that belief in action. It's a great day for Station 17, a great day for the Wenatchee Valley Fire Department, and most importantly, a great day for the people of Malaga, who now have faster help on the way when they need it most.