Valley Fire Officials Say Plan Would ‘Leave District Hanging’

Valley Fire District commissioners are leery of the current effort to form five cities in the Spokane Valley.

A successful incorporation election could have “very serious and very real” impacts on the district’s finances, Commissioner Ray Allen said at an incorporation orientation Monday night.

State law dictates that a new city that encompasses less than 60 percent of the assessed value of a fire district has several options when it comes to fire protection.

It may annex to the existing district. It may set up its own fire department, or it may hire a private company to provide fire protection.

None of the five proposed cities - Dishman, Evergreen, Opportunity, Park Place or Hillcrest Park - contains more than 60 percent of the assessed value of the Valley Fire District.

It’s the two latter options that have Valley Fire commissioners worried, Allen told a group of about 75 people gathered at the Spokane County Library on Main Avenue.

If one of the cities formed and chose to go with one of those options, the fire district would lose the tax revenue that is generated within that area.

Also, the district would have to pay the new government a sum equal to what it would expect to generate from that area in property taxes.

There’s no way Valley Fire could afford that without cutting services, Allen said.

“The district is left hanging,” he said. “It leaves the fire board walking on ice, and you don’t know how thin it’s going to get.”

The first thing to go would be the new fire station scheduled to be built at Liberty Lake next year, he said.

Incorporation proponent John Wittemberg said officials of any new city in the Valley would be foolish not to annex to Valley Fire.

The district is first-rate, and it would be cheaper to go that way, Wittemberg said.

Allen agreed, but said the possibility to go another way is there.

“The proponents cannot bind the new city to annex into the fire district,” he said.

The commissioner’s comments raised the ire of several in attendance.

At least four men confronted Allen after the meeting and accused him of trying to sink the latest incorporation efforts.

Allen denied the accusation.

“I just want to let you know all the information,” he said. “I thought that was the purpose of this meeting.”

Valley Fire commissioners backed the last incorporation drive, which failed at the polls in May.

That proposal, which would have formed one city in the Valley, encompassed more than 60 percent of the district.

Under state law, it would have automatically been annexed to Valley Fire.

, DataTimes