OR Fire Districts Face Layoffs, Furloughs after Levies Fail

Fire districts and cities in the Mid-Willamette Valley are making budget cuts, including deciding on layoffs and furloughs, following voters' rejection of operating levy increases in the May election.

The levy failure for Marion County Fire District 1 means a $2.4 million reduction in the department's operating budget, including $1 million in budget cuts for the upcoming fiscal year that will take the form of laying off three people and other cuts in service.

Stayton won't have to make cuts yet for its city operating levy that helps fund Stayton Memorial Pool, Stayton Library and parks in the city as it has a year left on its existing levy, but is considering putting another levy on the November ballot.

The Stayton Rural Fire District won't have to make cuts, but it will have to continue to rely on a dwindling pool of 50 volunteers, down from 60 a decade ago.

The measures looked like sure things when they were filed, but when the pandemic hit, it was too late to pull them from the ballot or modify them. And the general consensus is that taxpayers were uncertain of the future due to economic uncertainty decided against the increases.

"It's just bad timing," Stayton Rural Fire District Chief Jack Carriger said.

Stayton City Manager Keith Campbell agreed the timing was bad.

"I think we had internal discussions with the COVID issue and the uncertainty people had and people losing their jobs, it's a challenging time to go out and say hey, we need support on resources," Campbell said.

Marion County Fire District 1, which serves 55,000 people over 80 square miles, faces steep cuts after its 99 cent per $1,000 of assessed value levy failed by a significant 55% to 44% margin.

It will eliminate three positions, two firefighters and a battalion chief, by the end of the year, staffing levels will be reduced through cuts in the overtime budget, the remaining staff will not receive cost of living increases in the next fiscal year, will have furlough days and cuts in health care benefits.

In addition, its stations in Macleay (east of Salem) and Lake Labish (northeast of Salem) will temporarily close and move all emergency apparatus to higher traffic stations. The station in Clearlake (north of Keizer) will lose a daytime engine company due to reduced staffing levels.

Marion County Fire District 1 estimates call times could be increased by five minutes in parts of the district.

The district will tap its reserve account to make up the rest of the budget shortfall of $1.4 million.

"We cannot go back to the well here. There's nothing left," Chief Kyle McMann said. "If we can't pass our local option levy in a future election, we will have to permanently close stations and lay off more firefighters."

Stayton was asking residents to pay a small increase in taxes, but when the election took place, the library and pool were closed, as was the playground equipment at the city's parks.

If a similar levy isn't passed in a year, there will be large cuts in Stayton, too, but it's unclear if those facilities will be able to open by the election in May 2021.

"My honest answer is the pool would most likely need to be closed," Campbell said. "The library would have to be cut. Hours would have to be cut down. Cutting hours and maybe some programs would probably be on the table."

The Stayton Rural Fire District, which covers 107 square miles between Marion and Linn Counties, was asking for a minute increase over its expiring bond.

Carriger pointed out that among voters in Linn County — which had entered phase 1 reopening prior to the election — the levy received 248 yes votes vs. 210 no votes. But in the larger Marion County portion of the district — which hadn't entered phase 1 – it received 1,725 no votes vs. 1,363 yes votes.

"Normally we don't do super well in Linn County," Carriger said. "We might pass (overall) and we might not pass in the Linn County part of our district. Linn County was open, and it passed pretty easily there.

"I think it was just timing. I think it was a big thing of Marion County had not opened up and people had a lot of questions in their mind."

Of the operating levies in Marion County, only Hubbard Fire District's passed.

Now fire districts like Marion County and Stayton are going to have to continue to rely on volunteers for large portions of service.

"We're going to still be here," Carriger said. "We're going to do the best we can to serve the district."

———

©2020 The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.)

Visit The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.) at www.registerguard.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.