SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2019 | 9A
DISTRICT from page 1A
with a statement on the fi-
nancial difficulties facing
the fire district.
“This upcoming fiscal
year reveals several finan-
cial challenges that should
be addressed,” Schick said.
“In the past several years,
budget committees have
strived to keep our tax
rates as low as possible and
achieve efficiencies in our
operations. As a result, we
have levied taxes well below
our approved permanent
tax rate, which have re-
duced our tax revenues just
below $700,000 per year
since 2010.”
SVFR’s permanent tax
rate is $1.5417 per $1,000
of assessed value. Between
2000 and 2010, that rate had
been imposed, but in 2011,
SVFR actually dropped the
rate they had been collect-
ing down to only $0.8717.
According to SVFR Bud-
get Committee Member
Marvin Tipler, “When the
city taxpayers chose to an-
nex in the rural fire district,
we made a contract with the
city that we would drop the
millage rate down to $0.87,
and then we only raised it 5
percent each year,” he said.
“But after three years, the
city or the district could
opt out of that. And the
district did opt out. The
city raised their tax rate up
$.30 because they needed it
for capital improvements.
We raised it up so we could
make the payment on two
new engines.”
The millage rate went up
to $1.1391 in 2014 and has
remained at that rate ever
since.
During that time, SVFR
used the taxes to pay off
debt incurred by fire en-
gines and constructing the
main SVFR building. As of
right now, the district is debt
free and the current tax-
ing rate covers day-to-day
operations. If SVFR does
not decide now to raise the
mileage rate from $1.1391
to its original $1.5417, ser-
vices would still continue,
and the public would not
see any immediate impact.
The district is not in crisis,
and according to the bud-
get committee members, is
in better shape than it has
been in years.
The concern for SVFR
is not about the present,
but the future. One issue is
rising administrative costs
through PERS and health
insurance, a problem not
singular to SVFR.
“I think every district in
the state of Oregon, long-
term can’t keep up with
inflation and can’t keep up
with healthcare and PERS,”
Schick said.
The largest problem has
to do with equipment —
fire engines, safety equip-
ment and the SVFR build-
ings themselves.
“This lower tax rate has
not allowed us to maintain
financial reserves to ade-
quately fund our apparatus
reserve account and the
capital reserves account,
which includes funds for
upgrading or maintaining
our radio dispatch equip-
ment and major expenses
maintaining our facilities,”
Schick said.
In a few years, replace-
ment and maintenance
costs will begin to eat into
the budget, and SVFR could
find itself in a financial cri-
sis. To stave off that crisis,
the fire district is looking to
begin saving money now.
Over the past year, SVFR
personnel completed an in-
ventory of all of the appa-
ratus (vehicles) the organi-
zation owns, including fire
engines and staff vehicles.
The model years of the ap-
paratus were recorded, and
a lifespan was given to each
vehicle.
“Normally people look
at fire engines for 20 years,
but we’re planning for 25-
30 years, because you’re not
getting as much use as you
would as a larger city,” Abel
said. “For instance, Engine
1. … We have another 18
years to go before replace-
ment. Projecting a 2.7 per-
cent annual inflation rate,
it would be $880,000 to re-
place it 18 years from now.
With Engine 1, you should
be putting aside $40,000 a
year to be able to replace it
in 18 years with the infla-
tion rate.”
To be able to afford re-
placing the entire fleet, staff
projected that the district
already needs $1 million
in its current reserve, with
thousands of dollars going
into the reserve month-
ly. However, there is only
$105,000 in reserve right
now, with no extra money
being set aside.
While most of the fleet
is still projected to last for
years, there are more im-
mediate concerns, such as
self-contained
breathing
apparatus (SCBAs), “the air
tanks on our back,” Abel
said. “We know in four years
we have to replace them and
it’s about $350,000, but we
have no financial plan on
how we’re going to take care
of that.”
The numbers that staff
provided are not exact —
“This is a planning tool, in
essence,” Abel said. Some
vehicles and equipment
could last longer than ex-
pected, while others could
break down sooner. “But if
you know if you’re going to
have to buy a fire engine in
‘X’ amount of years, this at
least gives you a planning
tool that can be adjusted
every year. Right now, we
don’t have any planning
tool.”
All members of the SVFR
board and the budget com-
mittee agreed that a tax
increase was necessary,
thought there were caveats
in how SVFR should use the
money. The largest concern
was that the funds would
be used for equipment and
vehicles that ultimately may
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not be needed.
“I think you can get part
of the money you need by
fixing day-to-day operations
here,” Tipler said. “When
I was operations chief, we
had a horrible habit of get-
ting a new piece of equip-
ment and not getting rid of
the old one. We couldn’t get
any money out of it, so the
thought was ‘Why not just
keep it?’ We have 15 staff ve-
hicles, and [many] are over
30 years old because we nev-
er sold them because they
aren’t worth anything.”
Having 30 vehicles, even
if they are not regularly
used, can be costly, from
insurance rates to general
upkeep.
“Right now, we have one
piece of apparatus for every
volunteer,” Tipler said. “If
there was a call, every vol-
unteer could drive their own
apparatus to a call. One per-
son per vehicle. That’s partly
my fault, because we didn’t
get rid of the stuff. I think
getting rid of those things,
getting rid of surplus equip-
ment, not having to pay
insurance on it anymore,
those things I think you can
get part of the money there.”
But
deciding
which
equipment to liquidate can
be complicated, as a com-
ment by board member
Ned Hickson demonstrated
in regard to SVFR’s ladder
truck.
“My personal feeling is
that I love the ladder truck,
I love training on it, I love
climbing up the ladder, I
love all that stuff,” he said.
“But I think we used it
four times last year, and we
used it because we could,
not necessarily because we
needed it. I think at La Bu
La, we had a hell of a time
even getting it into the right
place and getting the water
where it needed to be. It’s
nice to have it, but I don’t
know if it’s something we
really need.”
While the ladder truck,
known as Truck 1, can be
utilized for overhead and
elevated fire suppression
on multi-story structures
as well as allow potential
high-elevation rescue sit-
uations, the costs of main-
taining the truck were far
greater than its usefulness,
Hickson argued.
“I look at the truck and I
think to myself — $50,000
to $60,000 a year for main-
tenance,” he said. “We have
to save up money to replace
it, another million dollars.
If we sold it for $500,000,
we could immediately set
that money aside to start
replacing equipment that I
think we really need. If we
decide we need a ladder
truck down the road if we
grow that much as a com-
munity, personally, I think
we could get some of these
developments — and some
of the money coming in
from the developments — to
help share in the cost. If we
get more three- or four-sto-
ry buildings, it would make
more sense for them to pitch
in — because the average
taxpaying citizen does not
really benefit from the lad-
der truck.”
Tipler and Budget Com-
mittee member Anne Ston-
elake agreed with Hickson,
however Budget Commit-
tee member John Murphey
stated he “strongly” dis-
agreed.
“I would not want to
be on the board of direc-
tors that made that deci-
sion,” Murphey said. “And
now you’ve got a fire at a
two-story structure, like
Shorewood or Spruce Point,
I don’t want to be the guy
who made the decision that
caused the loss of life in a
two-story building fire.”
For Abel, the concern was
with Old Town.
“If you’re a tourist-driven
community, and you have a
fire down there, the ladder
truck can have a signifi-
cant role in controlling that
area,” he said. “That will af-
fect this community.”
Another way SVFR could
save funds through equip-
ment and vehicles would
be to modernize, as Budget
Committee Member James
Palisi pointed out.
“Some of the equipment
that’s being purchased to-
day isn’t really necessary for
our geographical protection
zones. We have a major ur-
ban wildland interface issue
here,” he said. “Is Engine 1
capable of getting into cer-
tain areas? No. It carries
1,000 gallons of water and
has a gross vehicle weight
of, what… 50,000 pounds?
Why don’t we go with
multi-vocational
units?
You’ve got a lot of vehicle
accidents, vegetation fires.
So why would we have spe-
cialized equipment for vehi-
cle accidents when we could
have an engine that could
also handle brush fires and
carry medical rescue equip-
ment? Take advantage of
today’s technology, is what
I’m getting at. If we stan-
dardize our fleet that way,
I think we could save a lot
of money. We need to start
thinking smart about what
we buy.”
However, there are spe-
cific reasons each piece of
equipment was purchased
and continues to be used.
“Before you throw your
Class A engine out, remem-
ber, ISO,” Tipler said, refer-
ring to the Insurance Ser-
vices Office, which creates
ratings for fire departments
based on how well they are
equipped to put out fires in
a community. A bad ISO
score could increase insur-
ance rates.
“We work really hard to
get a great ISO rating,” Ti-
pler said. “The reason why
we have 1,000 gallons on
those engines is because
over half of our district
isn’t hydrated. And that’s
firefighter safety. You need
1,000 gallons for an ini-
tial attack when you’re in a
non-hydrated area. Should
there be some equipment
changes in my opinion? Yes.
But look at 360 degrees with
ISO ratings and all of that.”
Palisi brought up com-
pressed air foam systems
(CAFS), an ISO-approved
fire retardant foam that
could be added to a water
delivery system.
“You’re basically taking
a 500-gallon water tank on
the apparatus, and you can
stretch it to the equivalency
of 2,500 to 5,000 gallons of
actual firefighting agent,” he
said. “And the good thing,
it’s less wear and tear on the
firefighters, because they’re
carrying a hose with less
water.”
Another large concern
the members had was that if
SVFR increased the tax rate
now, there would be little
recourse for extra funds in
the future.
“Being a director at the
ambulance district, we had
$0.32 per thousand,” Ston-
elake said. “You don’t run
an agency on that. So, ev-
ery four years, we had to go
out for a levy. And we had
to work hard to make sure
that our folks here in this
community wanted to give
up more of their tax dollars
to give us $0.48 to run the
ambulance district. If we
didn’t get that money, peo-
ple had to go. It took care of
payroll. So I’m concerned
that you’re going to max
this out and then four years,
five years, you’re going to
have to ask for a levy. It is
getting harder and harder to
get these folks in this com-
munity to let go of more
money. And this is taxpayer
dollars that we’re using and
I think we need to look at
this really hard.”
The financial impact that
such an increase could have
on taxpayers was not lost on
the board members in the
room.
“I spoke with John Car-
nahan shortly before I got
here,” SVFR Director Tony
Phillips said. “His serious
concern was that we have
taxpayers that are on a fixed
income, and this might be
the straw that breaks their
back. Personally, this raise is
going to cost me about $500
a year in property taxes.”
“Absolutely, I take this
very seriously,” Schick said.
“Saving for the future is
key, at this point,” Phillips
continued. “We could get
by with a lesser increase
and get by for a couple of
years, but we don’t get that
extra cushion to continue to
build.”
“And that’s what it is —
preparing for the future,”
said Schick.
“It’s save money and pay
cash for something ver-
sus going out and getting a
loan and paying it off that
way,” Phillips said. “That’s
my opinion on the tax in-
crease. I’m in favor of doing
it as long as I feel confident
that our future direction is
to save everywhere we can,
and put away for that fu-
ture.”
The rate increase does
not need a public vote, since
the $1.5417 rate is standard.
Thursday’s meeting was an
initial vote on the plan, with
the final decision being
made by the SVFR board in
June. The fire district will
be active in answering ques-
tions for the community.
“The issue I have is ex-
plaining it to the public,”
Budget Committee mem-
ber Ed Groshens said. “If
we vote on it, then we help
support it. I volunteer to
do that. I don’t care what
it takes, if it takes a public
meeting, or whatever.”
“I anticipate a lot of public
meetings about this,” Schick
said. “Getting out there,
meeting the public myself.
I don’t want to be known as
the chief that comes in and
raises taxes. I think talking
to people will help.”
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