December 17, 2009

Mosier fire district plan gets tentative approval

By Keri Brenner
The Chronicle

     A plan to combine Mosier’s rural fire protection district, the volunteer firefighters and the Mosier city firefighting staff into one cohesive fire district won tentative approval Wednesday from the Wasco County Court.
     If the merger gets final approval from the county on Jan. 6 as expected, it will clear the way for the issue to go before Mosier voters on the May ballot. The plan calls for a Mosier fire tax limit increase from its present 47.7 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value to a limit of $2.10 per $1,000 of assessed value.
     Mosier Fire Chief Jim Appleton said the actual tax levy, if the measure is approved by voters in May, would likely be closer to $1.65 per $1,000 than the $2.10 per $1,000 limit. The higher limit, however, would allow for future growth, he said.
     “We are looking at the permanent tax rate limit that we will need to live with long-term,” Appleton said. “We’re not trying to assess people unnecessarily.”
Appleton said the current 47.7 cents per $1,000 was “crippling” and that a higher tax levy of $1.65 per $1,000 was crucial to running the new
district.
     “It is a tax increase, but not as high as the tax limit,” Appleton said. “Hopefully the public will understand the difference.” The actual levy amount would be decided by a new five-member board elected on the May ballot, Appleton said. Those who are elected likely would campaign to keep the levy at $1.65 for the foreseeable future, he said.
     By setting the fire tax limit at $2.10 per $1,000, the Mosier district could also clear the way for an ultimate seamless merger with Mid-Columbia Fire Protection District in the future, Appleton said. Mid-Columbia, which covers the area in The Dalles and generally east of Mosier, already has a fire tax limit of $2.10 per $1,000 assessed value, Appleton said.
     Appleton and other city leaders made their comments before Wasco County Judge Dan Ericksen and commissioners Bill Lennox and Sherry Holliday.
     The delay in the county vote until Jan. 6 is to allow time to correct a technical error with the notice on Wednesday’s public hearing. However, it was clear the plan had unanimous support from the county board.
     “I’m happy to see you have money in your proposed budget for training volunteers,” Holliday told Appleton. “It’s hard in South County, where I live, to get young people to come out and volunteer and get the training.”
     Also testifying in support of the plan Wednesday were Mosier Fire Board Director Bill Reeves, former Mayor Marc Berry and Mosier City Council President Allan Rodrick.
     Reeves said the merger was needed to have all the firefighters and staff unified under one system to avoid jurisdictional issues. Currently, both the city of Mosier and the rural fire protection district have taxing authority, but the volunteers do not, he said.
     “Sometimes one taxing authority purchases more equipment than the other and puts a stipulation on the firemen that it cannot be used to put out the fire in the other taxing area,” Reeves said. “What a mess that creates.”
     The three groups also have problems with recordkeeping consistency, Appleton said.
     Rodrick said the population of Mosier has almost doubled in the last 15 years from 260 to 430 and there are several new housing developments in the pipeline. Additional residents create need for more services.
     “Mosier has been changing a lot in this millennium,” Berry said.