It’s time for Lewis County Fire District 6 to renew the 10-year emergency medical services (EMS) levy that provides much of the district’s funding, but the district is asking voters to double the rate from 25 cents set by voters in 2012.
If approved, the measure will authorize the fire district to continue its EMS property tax levy at a rate of 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation for 10 years.
The additional funding would allow District 6 to maintain its equipment and hire more paid firefighters, which would help the district fully staff its Adna station and improve its response time.
“We're in the business of saving lives. And we can't do that without the public's support,” said District 6 Commission Chair Colin Mason.
District 6, which covers rural Chehalis, Adna and Logan Hill, responds to most calls for service from Station 61 in Chehalis. That station is fully staffed with a combination of paid and volunteer firefighters, but the district’s outlying stations in Adna and Logan Hill are staffed solely with volunteer firefighters when they are available. And while the district has historically been a volunteer fire station, District 6 has struggled in recent years to recruit and retain enough volunteer firefighters to provide reliable, consistent service throughout District 6’s coverage area.
“One of the things with volunteers is they're volunteers. And they work and they have families and they have commitments. And so it's hard to rely on just the volunteer system to staff us when we get more than one call at a time,” Mason said.
District 6 has agreements with neighboring districts for mutual aid when multiple calls come in at once, but relying on those mutual aid agreements risks pulling other agencies away from their own incidents and increases response times.
Between 2012 and 2021, District 6 experienced an increase in calls for service of nearly 21%, according to data from the district.
Of all calls for service, approximately 80% are EMS and 20% are fire calls. In 2021, 43% of these calls originated in the Adna/Newaukum Hill areas, making it the busiest area in the district.
Currently, District 6’s average response time to the Adna area is 14 minutes.
The American Heart Association recommends an eight-minute response time for cardiac arrests, with brain damage starting to set in at the five minute mark.
“With the (additional) staffing, we can reduce response times anywhere from four to six minutes,” said Mason. “I can't even put a value to it, when someone's life is in danger or we have a house catch fire,” said Mason.
The district-wide benefits of staffing Station 62 in Adna were especially apparent during the January flood event, when flooding prevented crews staffing the Chehalis station from reaching the Adna area.
“We actually had at least half a dozen calls, rescues. And we had four or five people at (Station) 62 because I live out there and some people who lived out there went to that station,” said Mason. “Had we not had those people at 62, we would have had an extremely delayed response, if even being able to get out there to a vehicle that was submerged on Highway 6, with water rising. These are just examples of bringing the community to realize we need their help and (to) be a part of this.”
With the 50 cent rate, an average home of $500,000 value would pay a total of $250 per year — an increase of $125 per year, or roughly $10.42 per month, from the expiring 25 cent levy.
If the proposal fails on the August ballot, the existing 25 cent levy will expire at the end of this year with nothing in place to make up for the lost funding.
“We're going to work on informing the public of where their tax dollars are going to go and how they're going to benefit from (this). We're not just going to take the money and not communicate,” said Mason.
“We're going to have transparency in our system. And we're going to be opening our communication.”
To view the levy proposal in full, visit https://elections.lewiscountywa.gov/current-election/.
Visit https://lcfd6.org/ for more information on the fire district.
