South Pend Oreille Fire Chief, Brad Martin, wants to invite the public to Community Meetings to discuss the reasons for a Levy Lid lift on the August 1 Ballot, review any current information, and answer any questions. He wants the public to be aware of the following information:
Your elected Board of Fire Commissioners have determined that in order to continue to provide and improve EMS services and fire protection to our residents, it will require a need to increase the previously voted on $1.00 to $1.25 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The current fire levy rate has fallen to $.75 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The last time voters were asked to restore this fire levy was 13 years ago in 2010.
Why is this necessary? Pend Oreille EMS (POEMS) has announced their closure on December 31, 2023. POEMS is the primary advanced life support (ALS) ambulance service in the county. With their closure, the responsibility of providing that service will fall onto the Fire District.
South Pend Oreille Fire and Rescue is primarily a volunteer Fire Department with only 4 paid career firefighters. The District encompasses approximately 240 square miles and handles just under 1,000 calls for service, with approximately 70% of those calls being for EMS service.
In order to provide you with a seamless transition of EMS services with both Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Life Support (ALS), we will need to fund hiring of full time Firefighter/Paramedics and part time Firefighter/EMTs to support the current volunteer Firefighters/EMTs we have serving our Fire District. Funding from this levy will also allow us to replace aging equipment and maintain and work to improve our current Washington State Rating Bureau (WSRB) Insurance rating.
COMMUNITY MEETINGS
10 am – 2 pm
June 3 at Station 62 – 11 Lancelot Lane, Usk
June 10 at Station 31 – 327252 Highway 2, Newport
June 11 at Station 32 – 6131 Highway 211, Newport
June 17 at Station 33 – 8165 Deer Valley Road, Newport
June 18 at Station 34 – 11 Jermaine Road, Newport
June 24 at Station 35 – 4193 Allen Road, Newport
June 25 at Station 61 – 7572 LeClerc Road South, Newport
July 1 at Station 81 – 4941 Spring Valley Road, Newport
Public Information Officer
SPOFR
