Black Butte Ranch voters face fire levy

Voters in the Black Butte Rural Fire Protection District face a critical vote during the next few weeks.

They will decide in a March 14 election whether to approve a five-year levy to provide funding needed for district operations, scholarships for student volunteers and support for the district’s fire equipment reserve fund.

According to Fire Chief Ed Sherrell, the possible layoff of one firefighter may also hinge on the outcome.

The levy calls for 90 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value a year for five years. For a $400,000 home, the levy would cost about $360 a year or roughly one dollar a day.

Absentee ballots were mailed on Monday with ballots to be mailed to residents on February 24. Ballots for the vote-by-mail election must be returned by March 14, according to the Deschutes County Elections Office. Just over 300 registered voters are in the special district.

“Another important date is February 21, the last day to register to vote in this election,” an elections office spokesperson added.

Chief Sherrell noted that the fire district has always been treated well by the voters, but a budget election always gets him concerned.

“This is a ‘double majority’ election,” he said. “More than 50 percent of registered voters must vote and more than half of those voting must approve the levy for it to pass.”

“Right now, our revenues can only increase by three percent, according to Oregon law, and our tax base is not growing,” Sherrell said. “At the same time, our overhead costs are going way and way up. From the 2002 -2003 year to the present, our costs are up 30 percent.”

The district found itself in a critical condition when Oregon voters approved Measure 50. At that time, the district tax rate was rolled back two years to a budget year when by chance, the district had approved a lower than normal budget with no major purchases and other expenses. That action gave the district an extremely low tax rate from which the limited annual three percent increase could be made.

“For example, where the Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District is at a $2.73 a thousand district rate, we are at $1.46 a thousand rate,” Sherrell said. “So we had to get an operating levy just to maintain services. That’s why we are asking for a 90-cent-a-thousand levy and we will do away with our current 38-cent-a-thousand levy.”

Besides maintaining current services, the approved new levy would provide for one additional firefighter, Sherrell explained.

“As we retain our career firefighters, they receive more vacation and staffing then becomes an issue,” he said.

One of the real cost saving and success stories in the district is its scholarship program for students studying to be firefighters and paramedics.

“We have a scholarship program that places 10 students here at no salary, but they do receive a scholarship for tuition and books,” the chief explained. “Our board commented on just the increasing costs of books at a recent meeting. The students live on site, are assigned a shift and receive training along with our career staff, plus get on-the-job experience.

“We are sort of the ‘leader of the pack’ with these student volunteers,” Sherrell said. “Black Butte Fire District really needs them with our residential population. I can’t ask an 80-year-old retired resident to grab a hose.”

Sherrell noted that the district has been tested several times during recent years by wildfires and he hopes the Black Butte Ranch voters will remember that as they look over their ballot.