Alan Predmore, the city of Buckley’s chief of the fire department, will temporarily take on one year of chiefing duties for the city of Carbonado starting Feb. 1. Buckley’s city council unanimously voted to approve the proposal, submitted by the Buckley fire chief.

Predmore will fill in for former Chief Matt Mills, who recently stepped down.

Predmore will not receive any personal compensation for the additional duties, which amount to 7.5 estimated hours a month with the unmanned Carbonado fire department. Instead, the city of Buckley will receive $4,500 in total monthly installments, to compensate for resources being extended to the neighboring town.

Some council members expressed concern over the time commitment by Predmore.

“If you ask me, I think the chief’s plate is pretty full and that he’s going to be spending a lot of his personal time performing these extra duties,” Mark McNally said.

“Believe me, we debated this quite a bit in (Finance and Public Safety) committee,” Randy Reed said.

“You’re not receiving any personal compensation for this,” McNally said to Predmore. “So I just want to know that, with everything else you do (here in Buckley), you won’t be overextended.”

Predmore replied that he would not have submitted the proposal if he weren’t confident that he could balance the additional tasks.

“As a member of the council, I had some concerns about how you would be compensated,” Melissa Patson said. “But as a private citizen, I know you have taught well. And I know you will be able to teach what you know to Carbonado.”

One of the possibilities for the arrangement, as described by City Administrator Dave Schmidt, was that Predmore could build up an operational model similar to Buckley’s and that the two cities could arrange a shared services interlocal agreement.

“I think it will be good,” Predmore said in a brief interview the day after the council meeting. “It’s a matter of trying to help them out. They have great people there.”

In other news, the council:

• approved retail fireworks permits for Buckley Kiwanis club and the White River Girls Basketball boosters.

• approved geotechnical inspection of the new fire station project, to be done by GeoDesign, Inc.

• approved a bill to remove trees from Meadow Mountain Circle Street.

• approved an agreement to access Pierce County’s Geographical Information Systems. Previously, the city of Buckley used Bonney Lake’s GIS account.