Volunteer Amy Hunt operates a hydraulic rescue tool.
On April 25 as part of a special election, voters within Fire District 10 will be asked to vote on a levy lid lift. The measure seeks to raise property taxes from the current 69 cents per $1,000 to $1 per $1,000. The increased funding would go toward paying for full-time staffing.
The district covers 64 square miles of rural homes in the northeast corner of Clark County. Right now, the district says it can’t pay for firefighters to be on duty around the clock. Part of the reason is because Fire District 10 currently has the second lowest tax rate of all fire districts in Clark County.
“We ran 731 calls in 2015 and 728 calls last year. It’s very hard to cover all of those calls with an essentially volunteer staff,” said Battalion Chief Gordon Brooks. “We have me, a full time office manager, and our fire chief Sam Arola is a part-time employee. Everybody else is a volunteer. We miss about 1 percent to 1 ½ percent of our calls every year, six to 10 calls where we don’t have anyone available. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but if that’s your emergency, it becomes a big deal.”
If the proposal passes, Fire District 10 would hire people to make sure a crew is on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As of right now, there are 43 volunteers on staff.
“... all really great people (the volunteers), but they have other responsibilities, jobs and families, so it’s really hard to have someone available all of the time,” said Brooks.
The fire district says if there is anyone who would like to discuss the issue and vote, they can come to meetings. Interested people can also call the district office at 360-247-5233 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
