Your fire levy at work
Written by:
Liza Crosse
What element of our Applegate community is out of sight, out of mind, yet is a matter of life and death, that happens once every five years but relates to your life every single day? The Applegate Fire District Levy!
Every five years, voters consider the question of renewing or changing the levy, a property assessment (tax) that is currently $1.25 per thousand dollars of assessed value. We are now halfway through the current cycle, and it is time for an update about this indispensable tax.
Taxes? Boring and best avoided, right? Fire engines and emergency responders? Much more exciting and certainly necessary… yet we can’t have one without the other. The levy funds 40 percent of the Applegate Fire District’s budget, with the rest coming from the base property tax and grants. Without the levy, we would have no ability to hire firefighters—not even a full-time chief—so it is essential to our community.
Combined with our base tax, it supports a broad range of local emergency services.
The District (as we call the Applegate Fire District) is outstanding at capitalizing on the resources it is given. Give them a dollar, and they make it three dollars, with matching grants and other resources garnered from the state and foundations, all to improve their service to the community. The levy funds the staff members who work to find additional resources.
Fire Chief Chris Wolfard recently reflected, “One of the things I’m proudest of is how much we’ve been able to accomplish with the community’s investment. The levy has improved emergency response, expanded wildfire prevention, and helped us bring millions of additional grant dollars into the Applegate that otherwise would not have been available.”
The levy renewal and increase in November 2023 was approved by 72 percent of voters and had three goals: (1) improving response times in the western portion of the District by staffing Station 51 in Applegate, (2) matching an Oregon State Fire Marshal (OSFM) grant to hire a Fire Marshal for five years and two firefighters for three years, and (3) renewing fire prevention efforts across the Applegate Valley. We are on track with these goals.
One of the most important benefits of the 2023 levy has been staffing Station 51. Together, the levy and outside grant funding allowed the District to place firefighters closer to the western Applegate, reducing response times when every minute matters. Although the OSFM grant that funded year-round firefighters ended as planned, the levy continues to support seasonal and student firefighters. That means Station 51 will continue to be staffed during fire season while the District pursues additional funding opportunities.
Approximately 2.5 years of levy funding remains for the Fire Prevention and Fuels Coordinator position (formerly the Fire Marshal position), and recruitment is underway.
The levy has helped the District bring in additional grant funding from various sources for fire prevention. Those partnerships have provided a chipper, two dump trailers, two remote-controlled masticators, and two $100,000 Title II grants supporting hazardous-fuels reduction projects in both the Jackson and Josephine County portions of the Applegate Valley. All of these projects are helping property owners reduce wildfire risk. Give the District a local dollar, and it continues finding ways to turn it into much more for our community.
The levy has also helped replace aging apparatus, including two water tenders and two Type 1 engines. The District has also been able to invest in modern communications equipment, computers, and software, improving efficiency and effectiveness throughout the organization.
Demand for the services of Applegate Fire District is growing, with emergency calls increasing yearly (see graphs). The risk of wildfires is extreme. The next levy renewal is in 2028. The District will soon be conducting a new strategic plan to consider priorities. That in turn will lead to a community discussion about needs, what we can afford, and what the next levy should support. Is the current levy rate sufficient? Do we need to hire more staff or update stations? I encourage you to be engaged.
It is also important to note that the District staff and board cannot campaign for a renewed levy in 2028. That is up to us, the citizens of the Applegate Valley. Please join us!
Liza Crosse
Secretary, Friends of the Applegate
Fire District
Image 1: Note Stn. 53 is the Ruch Station; 51 is the Applegate Station. Other stations are unstaffed.
Image 2: Number of Incidents by Year
