By AMELIA HEAGERTY

Staff Writer

Vashon Island Fire & Rescue wants Washington State Ferries to return more than $60,000 in ferry fares the district has paid in the last two years and three months, when its ambulances crossed Puget Sound.

To underscore the point, Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) acting chief Mike Kirk at a communitywide meeting Thursday night stood up before 250 people and told state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond she would receive a bill for those ferry costs.

“We’ve impounded your car,” he told the transportation chief with a smile.

The issue is a serious one, however, for the fire district’s five commissioners who have been pushing for a couple of years for ambulances to ride ferries free. Currently, the red emergency vehicles pay $44 each time they return to Vashon, according to Kirk.

“It wasn’t very long ago that the state transportation people decided that emergency vehicles didn’t have to pay to cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge,” said VIFR commissioner Ron Turner, who chairs the board. “The ferry is our bridge. We’re being discriminated against. They’re making no provision for island communities.”

According to Kirk, the five members unanimously agreed that the fire district shouldn’t be footing the bill, so they’re passing it back to the state.

Their decision is partly principle — the district, along with other island fire districts, has been without a contract to protect the ferry system’s docks for the last two years, commissioners and Kirk said.

When a contract had been in place, Washington State Ferries (WSF) had paid VIFR about $1,000 a year to extend its firefighting services to WSF’s dock and ferries, Kirk said.

But the contract expired, and for the last two years, island fire departments have been performing those firefighting duties unpaid.

Kirk said that ideally, WSF would present the district with a new contract for its dock firefighting services, as well as let VIFR emergency vehicles ride free. Aid vehicles already get priority loading, he noted.

In August 2007, Roger Ferris, executive secretary of the Washington Fire Commissioners Association, wrote a letter on behalf of island fire departments to ferry officials, asking for a renewal of their contract with WSF. But he never got a reply.

“Our fire commissioners finally got tired of no action from the ferry system,” Kirk said.

So the commissioners decided the time was ripe for requesting a free ride.

“They’re really not the same issue,” commissioner Jan Nielsen admitted. “That was the only way we could get their attention.”

He said paying $1,000 a year for firefighting protection for two docks, which sometimes have multimillion-dollar ferries moored to them, was a very low amount.

“Let’s get some attention, let’s go to the top of the ladder, ring the bell and see what happens,” he said of giving a five-figure invoice to the state secretary of transportation when she visited Vashon last week.

Commissioner Turner echoed similar sentiments.

“We’re using one thing to segue into another,” he said. “We attempted to negotiate with them and up to this point negotiations have been less than satisfactory. We’re going to say, ‘Tell you what, we’ll put out your fires, and you give us a ride.’”

He added that the board also wanted a copy of the bill sent to Gov. Christine Gregoire, and that the board was serious about it being paid.

While Kirk said the bill was a public action rather than a legal one, Turner said he would press the issue and “take it all the way” to get VIFR its $60,000 in ferry fares.

“What we’re saying is we played with you for two years, we’re tired of this nonsense,” Turner said. “Let’s play hardball.”