Fire district levies would fund services, stations.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

Two area fire districts will float bond measures for new fire stations in the Nov. 7 election, while the three-year-old South Lane Fire and Rescue District seeks voter approval of a local option levy to maintain current staffing and services.

Residents of the fire district serving rapidly growing Harrisburg will be asked to approve a $2.08 million bond issue designed to purchase land and build a new fire station large enough to accommodate two paid staff and four "sleepers" - professional firefighter trainees who cover round-the-clock shifts at the station in exchange for room and board.

Fire Chief Scott Mitchell said the district needs more training space and personnel to serve a city that has grown more than 16 percent since 2000, to nearly 4,000 people, according to the Portland State University Center for Population Studies.

"We're not planning only for current need, but also for the future," he said, noting that the city is considering efforts to expand its urban growth boundary. "We're hoping this will serve us for 40 to 50 years."

The department has an option to buy the last large, undeveloped tract in the city, a three-acre parcel in the 1100 block of South Sixth Street, directly across from the Springbrook Mobile Home Park.

Mitchell said the district, which also serves rural residents as far away as Mt. Tom in the Coburg Hills, eventually plans to build a sub-station in the southeast part of its territory.

If approved, the bonds would increase property taxes by about 63 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, although the rate is expected to decline as the district's assessed valuation grows.

In Brownsville, voters are being asked to pass a larger bond measure of $2.54 million. It would allow the fire district to build a new fire station on three donated acres of land in the south part of this town of 1,550 people, as well as purchase two new fire trucks over the next seven years.

The department, all-volunteer except for Fire Chief Kevin Rogers, currently operates out of a city-owned building in the north part of town. The department will maintain a substation there, but the rest of the building is expected to be converted to city use, possibly as a senior center.

The measure, if approved, would increase district residents' taxes about $1.25 per $1,000 assessed value. Again, that rate is expected to decrease as the district's assessed valuation increases.

Meanwhile, the South Lane County Fire and Rescue District is seeking voter endorsement of a four-year, local option levy of 39 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation to maintain general operations - including staff cost-of-living and salary adjustments. The money would also pay for improved emergency radio communications.

It may be a tough sell in the northern part of the district, which merged the former Creswell and Cottage Grove fire departments with an existing rural South Lane County district in a 2003 election. Since them, there have been virtually continuous tensions between those north and south battalions over staffing, management and equipment placement. Although there is no formal "No on Measure 20-124" group, a majority of Creswell City Council candidates have expressed opposition to the levy, said Fire Chief Dan Olsen.

"It appears to me that the comments have their roots in the continuing issue of the fire department merger and their view of leadership and how the district's being managed," he said.

Most recently, Creswell residents have criticized the district for discontinuing a six-month practice of posting an ambulance and professional paramedic at the Creswell station during the work day, when many of the department's local volunteers are away at work in other cities.

Olsen defended that decision, however, saying the recent death of a district captain created a vacancy the board was reluctant to fill until after the levy vote, in case staff cuts are required. He added that 75 percent of the district's medic calls come from the southern portion of the district, including Cottage Grove.

Creswell critics of the levy say area residents should not vote more money for the district until there is more equitable geographic representation on the board. Currently, all five members are residents of Cottage Grove, although recent appointee Dan Hoagland is a physician who practices in Creswell. Some Creswell council candidates have also charged that the district's problem is mismanagement, not lack of resources. Olsen, however, points to a 2001 merger report - which a former Creswell Fire District official helped prepare - predicting that the newly consolidated district's expenses would exceed revenues and exhaust cash reserves within three years.

"We're in our fourth year, so we actually staved it off longer than they expected," he said.

HARRISBURG FIRE & RESCUE DISTRICT What: $2.08 million in General Obligation Bonds For: Land purchase, new fire station Estimated cost: Tax increase of 63 cents per $1,000 assessed value, or about $94 annually on a $150,000 home

BROWNSVILLE RURAL FIRE DISTRICT What: $2.54 million in General Obligation Bonds For: New fire station, two new fire trucks Estimated cost: Tax increase of about $1.25 per $1,000 assessed value, or about $187 annually on a $150,000 home

SOUTH LANE FIRE & RESCUE DISTRICT What: Four-year, local option levy of 39 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. For: Maintain general operations, improve emergency radio communications. Estimated cost: Tax increase of about $59 annually on a home assessed at $150,000.