Row River Valley Community Partnership
Lane County
Request: $200,000
The Row River Rural Fire Protection District is facing an immediate challenge that threatens emergency response for our rural community.
Our volunteer firefighters are currently operating from a temporary fire station located on privately owned property. That property has now been listed for sale. Once it is sold, the District will lose the only facility available to house its fire engines, emergency equipment, and operational resources.
At the same time, our request for federal appropriations to construct the District's permanent main station in Dorena is advancing through the U.S. House and Senate Appropriations Committees. While that project represents our long-term headquarters, construction is still expected to be approximately two years away, even if funding is awarded.
Without an interim solution, our community could find itself with trained volunteer firefighters, emergency apparatus, and emergency equipment, but no secure location from which to store equipment or respond to emergencies.
Fortunately, there is a solution that addresses both the immediate need and the District's long-term emergency response strategy.
The Row River Valley Community Partnership, the nonprofit that led the community effort to establish the Row River Rural Fire Protection District, owns donated property in Disston. Over the past two years, we have completed the environmental review, engineering, permitting, and site preparation needed to make the project construction-ready.
We are seeking $200,000 to construct a modest emergency response station and equipment cache. This is not intended to replace the permanent Dorena station. Instead, it will serve as a permanent satellite facility for the District, providing secure apparatus and equipment storage, improving emergency response to the upper Row River Valley and adjacent National Forest lands, and preserving emergency response capability while the Dorena station is developed. Every effort has been made to minimize costs by limiting the project to only the essential infrastructure needed for emergency operations.
Our community has already raised more than $35,000 in direct local cash, in addition to thousands of volunteer hours, donated professional services, donated materials, and other in-kind contributions. The land is secured, the project is construction-ready, and we are prepared to begin construction immediately.
This is not a request to launch a long-term capital campaign. It is an urgent request to preserve emergency response capability today while completing a permanent emergency response asset that will continue serving our community for decades to come. The project itself is construction-ready, and we have completed the environmental review, engineering, permitting, and pre-construction planning.
As a young nonprofit serving a rural community with limited resources, we've learned that resilience begins with relationships. The challenges we've faced have brought neighbors, local organizations, public agencies, and volunteers together in ways we never anticipated. Those partnerships have strengthened our ability to prepare for disasters, reduce wildfire risk, respond to emergencies, and build lasting community capacity.
Our closest partners include the Row River Rural Fire Protection District, the Row River Valley Water District, the Sunshine Club, local residents, volunteers, businesses throughout the Row River Valley and Cottage Grove, and the many organizations that have contributed their time, expertise, and resources. Together, these partnerships helped establish the fire district, secure donated property, complete pre-construction planning, and continue advancing both the permanent Dorena Fire Station and the Disston Emergency Response Station and Equipment Cache.
We have also worked closely with Lane County, the Oregon State Fire Marshal, the Oregon Department of Forestry, the Oregon Department of Emergency Management, USDA Rural Development, and our federal delegation as we pursue long-term funding solutions. In addition, several local, regional, and tribal funders have invested in various phases of this work, helping us complete planning, site development, and other critical pre-construction activities.
The result has been a community-led effort, with local cash investments, donated professional services, in-kind contributions, and thousands of volunteer hours bringing the Disston project to a construction-ready stage.
Most importantly, I believe this effort has changed our community. Residents who once felt they had little ability to influence their future are now working together to reduce wildfire risk, strengthen emergency preparedness, and build long-term resilience for the entire community. Every milestone has reinforced the belief that rural communities can solve complex challenges when they work together. Completing the Disston Emergency Response Station will preserve emergency response capability while affirming that the community's commitment, investment, and years of volunteer effort can lead to lasting change.
