DECEMBER 24, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A9
MCFD1 breathing sigh of relief after
levy approval
After suffering through a pair of failed
levies over the last year, Marion County
Fire District #1 (MCFD1) had their local
option levy (Measure #24-455) pass with
over 60% of the vote at the May 18 Special
District election.
The levy, which will last for the next
five years, is for $0.59 per $1,000 of
assessed property value — or $59 ($4.92
per month) per $100,000 of value.
“We were absolutely ecstatic. It was
great to know that our message was
received,” said MCFD1 fire chief Kyle
McMann. “We know things are tight still,
but now we can limit liability for our fire-
fighters and our citizens.”
After receiving a $0.71 levy from
2016 to 2020, the district asked voters to
increase the levy by $0.28 at the primary
election in May 2020, but at the height
of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ballot
measure was not approved — it was the
first time a levy wasn’t approved in the
history of the district.
At the November 2020 general elec-
tion, MCFD1 asked voters to renew the
$0.71 levy, but once again the measure
failed, forcing the district to cut $2.4 mil-
lion from their $19.7 million budget —
MCFD1 is an independent taxing district
and receives no revenue from Marion
County, the state or federal government,
emergency services are funded through
a permanent tax rate of $1.90 of $1,000 of
assessed property value.
Due to the budget cuts, MCFD1 was
forced to layoff 12 full-time firefighter/
paramedics, close down fire stations in
Macleay and Labish Center and take
emergency apparatus out of service.
But with the passing of the levy, the
district will be able to rehire nine fire-
fighter/paramedic positions this summer
and add a dedicated three-person engine
company, which will be placed at the dis-
trict’s Middle Grove location. The num-
ber of responding units will also increase
from three to four, which will help with
the delays in response times MCFD1 has
experienced over the last year.
KFD endured busiest summer in
history
It was a busy summer for Keizer Fire
District (KFD) as the department expe-
rienced a substantial increase in call
volume.
In July 2019, KFD responded to more
that 500 calls service in a month, which
at the time was a district record. That
record was shattered last month as the
district went on 608 calls for service in
July for an average of 19.6 calls per day.
The 608 service calls broke the record
for most calls the district had responded
to in a month — KFD staffs one bat-
talion chief, one engine company and
three medic units per day, all with 10-12
firefighters.
“It has been extremely busy,” KFD
Division Chief of Operations Brian
Butler said. “Everyone has been inside for
a year, we have been told to not do any-
thing and stay at home. Then everything
opened up, and it just happened to be
summer time. It has been a different
summer because of those things, so we
are trying to cope the best we can and try
to maintain our staffing.”
Running over 19 calls per day has
forced the district into long-range plan-
ning for the future as KFD is planning on
renewing their local option levy at $0.59
per $1,000 of assessed property value in
2023. KFD Fire Chief Jeff Cowan said
that KFD needs more resources, people
and trucks, and that the district has been
having ongoing conversations about
future funding.
Along with running an exorbitant
amount of medical calls, KFD firefighters
also had an incredibly busy month on
conflagrations. The district sent out mul-
tiple crews to numerous fires throughout
the state, including the Bootleg Fire in
southern Oregon — one of the largest in
state history.