Redmond, Crooked River Ranch fire departments gain levy approvals in short off-year election ballot
(Update: Adding video, comments from Crooked River Ranch and Redmond fire chiefs)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – The Redmond and Crooked River Ranch fire districts won voter approval of new local option tax levies in Tuesday's special election, though it was a very close passage in Redmond -- still too close for Redmond Fire Chief Pat Dale's comfort.
Redmond Fire & Rescue's five-year local option levy was passing by the barest of margins in Tuesday night’s first round of election results – a 38-vote difference out of over 7,200 ballots counted, or about one-half of a percent. It's widened that margin to about 150 votes in subsequent tallies.
The initial count posted after the 8 p.m. deadline showed 3,623 votes in favor to 3,585 opposed.
But another 3,300 ballots were counted and posted at 10:15 p.m., and by Wednesday afternoon, the winning margin widened to 156 votes – 5,364 yes votes, or about 51% to 5,208, or 49% -- nearly 1.5 percent, well outside the one-fifth of a percent margin that could lead to an automatic recount, according to Deschutes County Clerk Steve Dennison.
The county clerk said county ballot returns by Tuesday night came to just under 30%.
Ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. election night, but mailed ballots will be counted that are received by the clerk's office within a week, by Nov. 14.
"I'm really delighted to see that the preliminary election results show that the local option levy is passing," Dale said Thursday. "However, the margin is so close. I want to wait until the election is certified before I do give a statement."
You can find all of Oregon's Special Election results on the secretary of state's page: https://results.oregonvotes.gov/
The Redmond levy will collect 75 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, an increase from the current 27-cent rate, and replace the one set to expire next June. The agency has seen a 68% increase in call volume in the past 10 years, and needs to hire more firefighter-paramedics to keep up, Fire Chief Dale said.
Crooked River Ranch Fire & Rescue was not in such a nail-biter position, passing its five-year local option levy, which by Wednesday had 956 votes, or 58% in favor to 703 votes, or about 42% opposed. (A majority of the voters and the Ranch are in Jefferson County, with some in Deschutes County.)
The new CRR levy, of $1.17 per $1,000 of assessed value, up 28 cents from the current, expiring levy, was also proposed to support increasing response demands by adding a third firefighter-paramedic and meet national minimum staffing standards.
Crooked River Ranch Fire Chief Sean Hartley said Thursday, "When we look at the whole package for a firefighter, with the wages and benefits and all that rolled in, we were usually between $75,000 and $100,000, depending on their experience as they start. So this levy helps us fund that third position and carry all three firefighter paramedics into the future."
"What we noticed is when we had an overlapping call and the first crew was out on a call and we got a second one, there was a significant delay in getting volunteers or off-duty career staff into the station, if they were available, to pick up the second out ambulance and go to that call," he said. "And there were times where we had to rely on our mutual aid partners, Redmond Fire, and request an ambulance from them to come out."
CRR Fire & Rescue posted a note to Facebook Wednesday, thanking voters for their support: "Your support of our local option levy ensures that we will have the personnel and resources to respond to the needs of Crooked River Ranch!"
The only other measure on Central Oregon’s slim off-year election ballot was a five-year local option tax for the Ponderosa Pines East Special Road District, which was handily passed, 71% (45 votes) to 29% opposed (18 votes).
The tax will generate $30,000 total, or $6,000 each year, to continue to operate at its current level of services such as road grading, dust control and snow plowing.
