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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Fire district tries bond again after ballot printing error

A Stevens County fire district’s tax proposal is back on the ballot this month after it was discovered missing from the ballots of dozens of residents in November.

Stevens County Fire District 1 Fire Chief Mike Bucy said he learned about the mistake when one of his volunteer firefighters noticed that the bond proposal wasn’t on his ballot even though he lived inside the district. The bond failed by only 28 votes in November and Bucy said he believes the issue was missing from more than 130 ballots.

“We’re not sure how many were not printed,” he said. “Somebody made an error. That’s about it.”

Stevens County Fire District 1 serves more than 13,000 people and covers 375 square miles in southern Stevens County.

Stevens County Auditor Tim Gray acknowledges there was an error, but said his office only has identified 48 ballots that should have, but didn’t, include the bond issue. Of those 48, only 15 were returned by voters, he said.

The problem occurred with voters who lived near the edge of the fire district boundaries and those who had registered to vote with vague information about the location of their rural homes. Some of those registrations were made decades ago.

“Some of the addresses were not very descriptive,” Gray said. “That’s where some of it came from.”

The problem likely had existed for years and was never noticed, Gray said. His staff has been examining records to ensureinformation is correct. If people think their ballot is wrong they should call his office, Gray said.

“If we know about these things early enough, we can get them a new ballot,” he said.

The fire district is asking voters to approve a $6.5 million bond that would collect 39 cents per $1,000 of assessed home value for 19 years. The owner of a $100,000 home would pay $39 per year.

That funding would pay for new, larger fire stations in Loon Lake and Suncrest. That would allow the district to have resident volunteers at the stations 24 hours a day to reduce response times. Ambulances, which currently respond from Deer Park, Spokane or Chewelah, would also be housed at the stations. That could reduce ambulance response times as much as 40 minutes in some locations, Bucy said.

The idea is to make the new stations operational hubs for the district, which has a total of eight stations. The current stations in Loon Lake and Suncrest are the smallest and busiest in the district, Bucy said. They are so small that larger fire engines and water tenders can’t fit inside.

The bond requires a 60 percent super majority to pass.

The district, which paid $2,200 to have the bond on the November ballot, sued the auditor’s office. Gray said a settlement recently was reached to give the district a $1,000 discount on the cost to put the bond back on the ballot.

The cost to be on the February ballot hasn’t been determined yet, but Bucy said the price likely will be higher because there are fewer issues on the ballot. Each government entity that places a proposal on the ballot must share the cost of preparing and mailing the ballots.

“We’re the only issue on the ballot in most of Stevens County,” Bucy said.