Fire District 8 puts maintenance levy on August ballot
Spokane County Fire District 8 has a maintenance and operations levy on the August ballot seeking funding to maintain and improve service in the district, which covers 110 square miles southeast of Spokane and south of Spokane Valley.
“The primary purpose of the levy is to maintain services and constantly staffed stations,” said Tony Nielsen, fire chief for Spokane County Fire District 8.
The levy rate is 50 cents per $1,000 assessed property value, or about $100 per year for a $200,000 home.
“That would take us to $2.50 per $1,000 assessed property value,” Nielsen said. “That still makes us a bargain compared to other districts.”
Spokane Valley is at $3.13 per $1,000 assessed property value.
District 8 has stations in the Moran, Valleyford, Ponderosa and Saltese areas and the levy would allow District 8 to continue its current level of service and staff each fire station with a paramedic, 24 hours a day.
Nielsen said that’s important because more than 80 percent of emergency calls are medical calls.
Firefighters have extensive CPR and medical training, but paramedics have even more skills.
“We are getting more simultaneous and back-to-back medical calls,” Nielsen said.
An aging population is driving some of that development; Fire District 8 gets many calls from assisted living facilities, Nielsen said.
If the levy doesn’t pass it will be up to the board of fire commissioners to decide what to do.
Nielsen said the worst case scenario would be closing a station or keeping only three stations open at any one time.
“The levy would also allow us more boots on the ground,” Nielsen said. “We wouldn’t have to wait for more firefighters to arrive before we can attack a fire.”