Fire leaders from around the valley will be gathering to discuss whether turning the Yakima Fire Department into a regional fire authority is a good idea. This is one of the solutions city council members wanted to look into to avoid closing Station 92 in West Valley when reviewing the 2025-26 budget cycle. But creating an RFA would require taxpayer money in order to cover operating costs. Fire chief Aaron Markham told city leaders that meeting with local leaders is set for September 19th at Station 95 in Yakima. Markham also added that applications for firms to conduct the RFA study are also being reviewed at this moment. "The next step in that process is to do evaluation of all the applicants and firms that submitted their plan, so we'll be doing that over the next couple weeks and selecting a firm to bring for consideration, " Markham said.