A five-year local option tax will go before Stayton area voters on Nov. 2.
“It would cost .89 cents per thousand of assessed value,” said Jack Carriger, chief of the Stayton Rural Fire Protection District. “This means if you own a home that is assessed at $300,000, it would cost you about $22.20 per month or $266 per year. It will be used to hire nine full-time positions or the equivalent.”
Carriger said due to the department’s increased call volume, wildfires and COVID, a growing lack of volunteers is causing problems.
“We are struggling to answer all calls for service and/or having enough responders to perform our duties,” he said. “Stayton is not unique in facing volunteer challenges. The entire country is experiencing a shortage of volunteers. It is become more and more difficult to find people who are willing to make the sacrifices it takes to be a volunteer firefighter.”
According to Carriger, less people are willing to put in hundreds of hours of training and leave their families at all hours of the day or night.
“This situation puts a great deal of strain on the good volunteers we do have, which has created a great deal of burnout with our members,” he said. “We need more fulltime positions to guarantee coverage and quicker response on all calls and additional personnel on calls that require more personnel.”
Carriger said the nine positions will assist the department in providing consistent and quicker response times as well as allowing the recruiting of additional volunteers. By taking the pressure off of current volunteers, the department hopes to keep its “well-trained volunteers longer,” he added.
“Having a quicker, guaranteed response to all calls is significant to the safety and well-being of our community,” Carriger said. “We will have personnel at the station 24/7/365 to respond immediately giving them a head start on calls. Our volunteers have to respond from home to the station which can take five to eight minutes before responding to the scene. With fulltime positions they can be on scene that five to eight minutes quicker to initiate service while the volunteers are responding from their homes.”
Carriger said when minutes count, this time savings will have a significant impact on the outcome of all aspects of emergency service.
“The levy will only pay for the fulltime positions, the Personal Protective Equipment to outfit the positions, and training,” he said. “We will not be purchasing apparatus with the funds.
“We are all taxpayers,” he added. “We realize additional taxes are always a concern. However, as our community grows, call volume increases, and volunteerism declines, it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide the consistent timely service our community needs and deserves.”
