By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue District budget committee has approved a $1.34 million spending plan for 2021-22, which includes money to hire a fourth firefighter, possibly buy a used fire engine to replace an old, troublesome one, and pay off a $86,000 loan for air packs purchased this year.
It is the first budget proposed by Fire Chief Jamie Mason, who arrived as assistant chief in 2020, took over in February when Gary Woodson was forced out, and received his chief’s badge during Thursday night’s board meeting.
Mason put together a 22-page document that outlined proposed spending for the next fiscal year, but also projected out through 2025-26.
“For the next five years it’s going to be very tight,” he told the budget committee – which is made up of five citizen members and five COCF&R board members.
Issues hanging over the district are plans to possibly buy the main station from the city of Waldport and then remodel it, and an agreement with the Seal Rock Fire District to share personnel and equipment.
Buster Pankey of Waldport and Kathryn Menefee of Tidewater, who were elected to the board earlier in the week – but who don’t take office until July – and Todd Holt of Waldport, who leads incumbent Peter Carlich of Tidewater by two votes, also attended the 90 minute budget meeting.
The fire district’s revenues comes from three main sources, including:
- A permanent tax base of 82 cents per $1,000 assessed property value estimated to bring in $326,300 in 2021-22;
- A levy of $1.27 per $1,000 that funds yearly operations, estimated to bring in $504,800; and
- An equipment levy of 25 cents per $1,000 expected to bring in $99,400.
The district expects a beginning general fund balance from this fiscal year of $326,300 and cash carryover of $650,800.
Mason proposed transferring $220,000 into a reserve fund for buildings, $100,000 into reserves for equipment, and $20,000 into a contingency find. He proposed a cash carryover for 2021-22 of $220,000 to pay district expenses from July through November when property taxes dry up.
“We have some flexibility, just not a lot,” Mason told the budget committee, adding that $20,000 for contingencies “is not a very large margin.”
Mason said part of the issue was that the district’s 5-year operating levy approved by voters last November was the same as the past 10 years and is not keeping pace with rising costs and increasing demand for services.
“I’m not saying it’s not doable and that we’re in trouble … but it will be tight,” he said.
Worried about Seal Rock agreement
Mason said a fourth firefighter would balance around-the-clock staffing with that provided by Seal Rock, which hired a fourth firefighter last week. That means the district could respond to incidents with two professional firefighters and not have to wait for a volunteer to arrive at the station or the incident.
“It’s trying to fill a minimum staffing level so we can respond to the scene before more help gets there,” Mason said.
Despite Woodson’s tumultuous three years in Waldport, the district is still the most financially stable of the three small districts on the central coast. The Yachats Rural Fire Protection District is running a $400,000 to $500,000 yearly deficit and plans to ask voters for a major increase in one of its two levies in November. Voters in the Seal Rock district last week soundly rejected a proposed doubling of a tax levy and elected three new board members who have objected to the district’s staffing and spending plans and the intergovernmental agreement with COCF&R.
“That’s one of the issues we’re going to have to deal with over the next few years – our staffing,” Mason told the budget committee. “If the intergovernmental agreement (with Seal Rock) goes away we will have to determine new staffing. We will not be sending out one person on a call.”
But Mason said he’s “thinking optimistically and that the IGA will stand” because the two districts need it to cover the rising number of calls.
“People will have to realize that in a small community we don’t have a big property tax base … and there’s more demands on emergency services,” he said.
The 2021-22 budget anticipates completion of the Tidewater station. The district will also send maintenance officer Erich Knudson to Eureka, Calif. soon to examine a 2009 engine that – if it checks out – would become the front-line engine at the main Waldport station, replacing a much older engine that has been plagued with issues. There is money in the district’s equipment reserves to pay its $125,000 cost.
The current engine would then be used as a reserve, something the district was dinged for by adjusters who set fire insurance ratings for residents.
The budget also proposes to pay off the remainder of a $102,000 state loan used to buy new air packs for firefighters. That money comes from the district’s equipment levy, which is supposed to be spent entirely each year.
But that levy, Mason said, expires next June.
“When this goes away, we have to decide what to do next for equipment,” he said.
Although approved by the budget committee, the budget is still has to have a public hearing and get board approval in June before becoming the district’s official spending plan July 1.
