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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (May 14, 2021)
MAY 14, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3 Ballots due May 18 Voters have until 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 18, to return their ballots. It is too late to mail ballots, but there is an official drop box behind the Keizer Civic Center, 980 Chemawa Road N.E. Other nearby ballot boxes include: Marion County Clerk, 555 Court Street N.E., Ste 2130, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and Roth’s Fresh Market, 4746 Portland Rd. N.E., 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. You can track your ballot’s progress in Marion County by registering at tinyurl. com/mctrax. Text message and email options are available. Salem-Keizer School District board elections, Keizer Fire Board elections and an operating levy for Marion County Fire District No. 1 are on the ballot this year. MCFD1 makes last pitch for operating levy St. Edward Catholic Church is hosting a Step into Spring Food Fest on May 15-16. Oktoberfest-type fare will be offered. (FILE PHOTO, Keizertimes) It's a springtime Oktoberfest at St. Ed St. Edward Catholic Church is hosting the 2021 Step into Spring Food Fest on May 15-16. The event will be held on Saturday, May 15, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, May 16, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Step into Spring is a walk-in event. Booths serving coffee and cinnamon rolls will open at 9 a.m. each day. Multiple nonprofit organizations will be providing goods that people can purchase at the event. St. Edward’s Youth Group and Boy Scouts will offer Italian soda, iced coffee and Schreiner’s iris bouquets, St. Edward will offer Berliner sandwiches. St. Edward’s Hispanic parishioners will offer tamales, Gervais Knights of Columbus will offer barbecue chicken, Father Taaffe Homes will offer Oktoberfest sausage, Michael the Archangel Pregnancy Center will offer cinnamon rolls and St. Joseph School will offer baked potatoes. Oregon Dairy Women will be serving ice cream for dessert. Keizer library book sale set for May 21-22 The Keizer Community Library’s Spring Book Sale is scheduled for Friday, May 21, and Saturday, May 22, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the McNary Golf Club confer- ence room located at 155 McNary Estates Drive N. Items include overstock books, audio- books and CD, movies on videotape and DVD, and puzzles. Prices are 50 cents for paperback books, $1.00 for hardcover books, $1.00 or less for most other items, and special pricing on a few items. Donations of the above-mentioned items are always welcome. The library is open for donations and curbside pick-up Mondays 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays 4 to 6 p.m. Call the library during those hours at 503-390-2370. Additional information is available on the library’s website, www.keizerlibrary. org. The Keizer Community Library is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation staffed totally by volunteers. The semi-annual book sales raise funds to help keep the library doors open. For Marion County Fire District #1 Chief Kyle McMann, the operating levy on next week's ballot is nothing less than a fight for the life of the district itself. “We’re responding to 50 percent more calls than seven years ago with 12 fewer firefighters – actually, 22 if you include the volunteers who have left due to burn out,” said McMann. “We can’t keep going like this. We are responding to well over 8,000 calls a year, and must have more person- nel to provide an adequate response. The current situation is unsafe.” MCFD#1 is asking the community to approve Measure #24-455, a local option levy of $0.59 per $1,000 of assessed property value during the May 18, 2021 Special District election. That’s approx- imately $59 (or $4.92 per month) per $100,000 of assessed property value. The Fire District had a local option levy of $0.71 per $1,000 until last year. It had asked voters to renew it, but that request was turned down. Loss of rev- enue necessitated significant cuts to service, and the community has seen response times increase by more than a minute. Measure #24-455 would rehire nine full-time firefighter/paramedics to increase the number of emergency units able to respond to 911 calls to four. The Fire District currently has three units responding down from 5.5 a year ago. The Fire District serves 55,000 peo- ple over 80 square miles and about 1,000 Keizer homes. It is an independent tax- ing district and receives no revenue from Marion County, the state or federal gov- ernment. Last year, it lost 30 percent of its revenue for emergency services when its local option levy was not renewed. Since that time, firefighter layoffs have resulted in longer response times, clos- ing stations and taking apparatus out of service. Ballots are due to Marion County Elections or in an official drop site loca- tion by 8 p.m. on May 18. There is a drop box located in the parking lot of the Keizer Civic Center. More information about the local option levy can be found at www.mcfd1. com. Fire Chief Kyle McMann also welcomes questions at 503-588-6535 or kylem@mcfd1.com. Tax deadline looming The deadline to file state and federal taxes is Monday, May 17. In March, the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service announced that the deadline to file taxes would be extended, the Oregon Department of Revenue extended state filing deadlines shortly thereafter. Penalties, interest and additions to tax will begin to accrue on any remaining unpaid balances as of May 17. Individual taxpayers do not need to file any forms or call the IRS to qualify for this automatic federal tax filing and payment relief. Individual taxpayers who need addi- tional time to file beyond the May 17 dead- line can request a filing extension until Oct. 15 by filing Form 4868 through their tax professional, tax software or using the Free File link on IRS.gov. 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