Voters in rural Lincoln County will decide this May whether to approve a five-year fire services levy. The proposal follows a major change in how the district operates.
East Lincoln County Fire and Rescue serves a 55 square-mile area that includes the community of Eddyville. For years, the district operated as a partnership with the nearby City of Toledo—but the district said that agreement ended last September.
William Ewing, East Lincoln County's Fire Chief, said the district decided to separate itself due to issues with management in Toledo, and a shrinking volunteer base in the city. Toledo's Fire Chief, Larry Robeson, was placed on leave in September, but has since returned to work.
Today, Ewing said his department has grown, and now has around 17 volunteer firefighters. But he said the separation from Toledo is still having consequences.
Ewing said much of the equipment that his district’s firefighters had been using actually belonged to the city. He said the district is now in desperate need of more funding to replace those items.
“It’s actually kind of an emergency," said Ewing. "It's not like we're not going to respond if this doesn't happen. What's going to happen, though, is we're not going to do it as safely or as efficiently.”
The levy would collect 39 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value from residents in the district. This would generate an estimated $100,000 per year, according to a filing by Ewing.
Ewing said this funding would be spent on Personal Protective Equipment, thermal imaging cameras, tools to extract people from car crashes, and more. He said the district would also be able to expand its disaster preparedness program.
The fire district said it couldn't provide a count of how many people live within its boundaries. But Lincoln County Clerk Amy Southwell said there were just under 1,900 voters set to weigh in on the ballot measure in May.
Meanwhile, Toledo's interim City Manager David Clyne said the city is recovering after the turmoil last year. He said it's possible a new agreement with East Lincoln could allow for the sharing of equipment.
