PORT TOWNSEND — East Jefferson Fire-Rescue officials are cautiously optimistic that voters on Tuesday will pass three levy proposals to maintain and boost financial support for emergency and fire services in Port Townsend and Jefferson County.
“Basically, we’re just holding our breath,” said Fire-Rescue Chief Gordon Pomeroy, who started as chief at the turn of the year and has been publicly presenting information about the proposals for more than two months.
If the measures fail, Pomeroy said East Jefferson Fire-Rescue will examine the possiblity of limiting or cutting the number of medics and resident program volunteers, and whether a fire station should be closed to save money.
Mailed ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday to be counted.
Voters also can drop ballots into drive-through boxes in the parking lot on the west side of Jefferson County Courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend, and at the Jefferson County Library parking lot at 620 Cedar Ave., Port Hadlock.
As of Friday, the Auditor’s Office had received 6,815, or 45.95 percent, of 14,832 ballots mailed out in the all-mail election.
Voter turnout for the district inside the Port Townsend city limit was 3,106 of 6,737 mailed, or 46.10 percent, and outside the city was 3,709, or 45.82 percent, of the 8,095 mailed.
Ballots returned as undeliverable totaled 94.
Voting will end at 8 p.m. Tuesday night at the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office in the courthouse where the first ballots will be tallied and the first results released shortly thereafter.
At least one and possibly two more elections division vote counts are scheduled Wednesday and Friday after additional ballots come in by mail next week.
While fire district administrators such as Pomeroy could not legally campaign for voter passage and were limited to just delivering facts to as many civic groups as possible, the district’s union representatives have posted campaign signs urging passage and paid for campaign mailings.
One of the measures will be decided only by voters inside the city limit, which has fire and emergency services provided by the district through a services contract.
The other two are presented only to those in the East Jefferson Fire-Rescue district who live outside the city limit, including in the unincorporated communities of Cape George, Chimacum, Irondale, Kala Point, Marrowstone Island and Port Hadlock.
If approved, tax increases would be reflected in the 2011 property tax statement.
The Port Townsend measure will ask voters to approve restoring the city’s emergency medical service levy rate to 50 cents per $1,000 assessed value in the city. The current rate is 28 cents per $1,000.
The two measures in the unincorporated areas of the fire district are:
• Proposition 1, which would restore the district’s emergency medical services levy rate to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value within the district. The current rate is 32 cents per $1,000.
• Proposition 2, which would restore the fire district’s regular tax levy for fire services to $1 per $1,000 of assessed value. The current rate is 56 cents per $1,000.
Voters are essentially being asked to approve raising property taxes by about $150 for a $350,000 home, Pomeroy said.
Revenues from both the city measure and Proposition 1 would be used only for emergency medical services, while Proposition 2 revenues would go to the district’s general fund.
Without the levies, which maintain previously promised funding levels, the fire district is operating about $250,000 in the hole each year, Pomeroy said.
Karen Cartmel, deputy auditor in charge of elections, expects a relatively low turnout for the election, predicting that about 55 percent of ballots would be returned by Tuesday.
This contrasts to the highest instance of voter turnout, the presidential election, which in 2008 drew 92.06 percent of the ballots.
Ballot tallies will be posted on the Jefferson County elections Web site at http://tinyurl.com/y6vmry7 a few minutes after 8 p.m. Tuesday.
The second count of votes of the votes will posted on Friday, and the third, if necessary, will occur on May 5.
For information prepared by the district in support of the ballot proposals, go to www.ejfr.org/levy_facts.html.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
