Among the items on November’s ballot is a request to double a property tax levy for a fire district that serves residents south of the Eugene-Springfield area.
The South Lane Fire & Rescue District Board is asking voters to double a levy that pays for its operations so it can hire more firefighters.
The district serves Creswell, Cottage Grove and surrounding areas.
According to the district’s website, the additional funding would increase the number of on-duty firefighters at any given time from seven to ten. That increase would allow the district to staff a third ambulance crew.
It would also increase minimum staffing at any given time, a mechanism that can result in overtime pay for firefighters who volunteer to pick up a shift during a shortage.
The request comes as call volume has increased in recent years.
“When we started [the current levy], our call volume was about 3,400 a year. Last year, we were over 5,300 calls, and so far this year we’ve already hit over 4,000 calls,” said district firefighter/paramedic Amanda Huckins.
Huckins said it is routine that all on-duty firefighters are out on calls and the district relies on aid from nearby districts such as Eugene/Springfield Fire.
“When I work a 48-hour shift, it’s pretty frequent that I get four hours of sleep or less a night. Then we come back to our regular lives and it’s a lot of sleep deprivation. And obviously it’s not the best for our health,” she said.
The ballot measure would increase the current levy of $0.47 per $1,000 of assessed property value to $0.94.
The assessed value of a median-priced home in the district is $198,639, according to the district. The ballot measure would increase the expense of the fire levy to $186.72 per year for the owner of a median-priced home.
If passed, it would raise an estimated $12,978,604 over its five-year lifetime.
