REDMOND, OR -- Fire departments in Redmond and Crooked River Ranch plan to hire more staff if voters approve tax levies in Tuesday’s election.
Crooked River Ranch Fire Chief Sean Hartley admits increasing the levy is challenging, especially with rising property tax bills, which showed up in the mail around the same time as ballots, “This one is an asked for an increase of 28 cents. So, it's actually a total of $1.17 per 1000 of taxable assessed value to bring in more funds to get our goal of retaining our firefighter paramedics.” He says the department has been explaining the need for the increase, “We've been doing a lot of getting out and talking to groups and getting information out in as many avenues as we can. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback. We've gotten some good questions really asking us how we came up with the number…Cautiously optimistic that we will see it pass.”
Hartley tells KBND News if the levy is approved, one firefighter-paramedic would be hired in order to keep up with increasing call volume, “When our on-duty crew is out, what we found is we get another call and we're waiting on volunteers to come into the station or potentially off duty staff who may be available to come help staff a call.”
Redmond also hopes to hire staff with its requested levy increase. Current levy rates aren’t enough to hire more firefighter - paramedics. “26% increase in population, 68% increase in call volume. Those are the reasons for us to go out on the ballot right now,” Redmond Chief Pat Dale says the tax increase could be balanced by lower fire insurance premiums, “The biggest impact on improving fire classification rating is staffing. So, it's a fact that as we add staffing, the next time that we are re-rated, we will improve from a three to a two classification rating. There will be hundreds of thousands of dollars of savings.”
Ballots must be turned in to election drop sites or mailed by 8 pm Tuesday, November 7th.
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