Voters in Pleasant Hill may be in for a bit of head scratching as they consider a bond measure to replace their old fire station.
Even though the bond request appears to be presented to the people by the Pleasant Hill Rural Fire Protection District—it isn’t.
The Fire District Board of Directors does not endorse the bond and is actively encouraging voters to reject it. Board President Todd Anderson said the $8.5+ million bond would legally max out the fire district’s borrowing authority. And, he added, that’s not the only problem with the proposal. “We could build a new station, but we would not have the ability to staff it for 24 hours a day," he said. We don’t have the funding.”
The bond measure got on the ballot through a citizen initiative sponsored by Bob Schutte, who owns Northern Lights Christmas Tree Farm in Pleasant Hill. He said in 2007, a structural assessment by the state found the fire house to be “seismically unsound.”
“Over the last ten years, the fire Board has done, I’ll say, next to nothing," said Shutte. "They’ve often talked about building a fire station but they’ve never gotten to the point of moving forward.”
Shutte said he’s gotten flyers from the Fire District Board with misleading information about bonds suggested for the May 2023 ballot. He also expressed doubts about consolidation. “Their primary motive in consolidating with Goshen is to have the Goshen taxpayers help to pay for a new fire house for Pleasant Hill,” he said.
Anderson, the board president, said it’s true that the district wants to consolidate with the Goshen Fire Department. He argued doing so would put Pleasant Hill in a stronger financial position going forward and make it easier to borrow money to build a new fire station. Anderson said the current initiative could hinder those efforts.
“We just think this is really gonna muddy up the waters for the future,” he said.
Pleasant Hill and Goshen fire districts currently work together under an intergovernmental agreement. But formal consolidation, which Anderson said would be sought in May 2023, would require that voters from both fire districts approve it.
Anderson said there is no disagreement about the need for a new fire station. It’s just a matter of getting the ducks in a row so that all the needed parts for running a 24/7 fire house are in place.
Supporters of bond measure 20-329 insist this is the time to act because the cost involved with demolishing, designing and building a fire station with living quarters in Pleasant Hill is only going up.
