PORT ANGELES — A levy lid lift for Clallam County Fire District No. 2 will be on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.
Fire district commissioners unanimously supported a resolution to place the measure on the ballot at their Tuesday night meeting.
The lid lift will ask voters to continue property tax funding for four full-time firefighter/emergency medical technicians, or EMTs.
“We need a balance of volunteer and full-time emergency personnel to provide an adequate emergency response,” said Fire Commission Chairman Tom Martin.
“We aren’t looking to be the biggest in the business — we realize the financial limitations within our community — but we do want to have a fighting chance to reach you in time to save your life or property.”
If approved
If approved in November, the lid lift would be an additional 39 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, or $6.50 per month/$78 per year, for the owner of a $200,000 home, Fire Chief Sam Phillips said.
That would be in addition to the regular fire levy of 76 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation, making a total of $1.15 per $1,000 assessed valuation.
That would come to $230 a year that the owner of a $200,000 home would pay for “total fire protection and emergency services,” Phillips said.
The additional money would be collected in 2014 if voters approve it.
Fire District No. 2 currently has the lowest levy rate of any full-service fire district in the county, Phillips said, adding that it is debt-free and operates under a balanced budget.
The money would go toward maintaining current emergency service levels, including wages, safety gear, training and some overtime for four full-time firefighter/EMT positions.
The four firefighter positions now are funded with a two-year $422,140 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that expires in September 2014.
They represent the only full-time emergency responders that local residents have in the fire district.
The district covers more than 85 square miles outside the city of Port Angeles and serves the communities of Deer Park, Gales Addition, Black Diamond, Dry Creek and Lake Sutherland.
The fire district has 40 volunteers and four full-time emergency personnel responding to an average of 1,000 calls a year, Phillips said.
Response times
Fire district officials applied for the grant for the four full-time positions when emergency response times had increased to 30 minutes in some cases because there were not enough personnel to respond, Phillips said.
“Our volunteers were struggling to respond to the number of emergency calls we were receiving,” Phillips said.
“These four full-time positions provide our volunteers with some relief and helped to lower response times for our community.”
The fire district plans to have information about the levy lid lift on its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ClallamFire2.
Phillips encourages people with questions to contact him at 360-417-4790, chief@clallamfire2.org or P.O. Box 1391, Port Angeles, WA 98362.
