Issaquah city councilmembers were buoyed from news at a Sept. 29 Committee of the Whole meeting after learning the city’s bill for fire services will likely drop next year.

Using a felt-tip pen, Eastside Fire & Rescue CFO Dave Gray drew a diagram explaining how the agency budgeted their resources based on the needs of their customers.

He estimated the regional emergency services agency will bill the city $4,830,393 for their work in 2010, a drop of $41,366 from payments made for 2009.

The reason for the drop, said Gray, was twofold.

Firstly, EFR has frozen their budget for next year at $19,747,473 to serve more than 140,000 citizens across a 190-square mile area.

Of particular interest to the city’s managers was the news that Issaquah’s share of aid calls within city limits was at a lower than last year.

Issaquah City Council had earlier sent a letter to EFR requesting they not raise the city’s share of the agency’s cost due to the recession and the city’s subsequently declining revenues.

Deputy Council President Fred Butler noted recent city lay-offs and said the drop in expenses was welcome news.

“The city’s been trimming our own budget,” he said. “We used to have 235 FTEs (full time employees), but we’re down to about 200 now.”

EFR Deputy Chief Wesley Collins warned, however, that EFR still faced an estimated $500,000 deficit, but said ample reserves would likely be used to fill in the financial gap.