Voters in the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District on Tuesday renewed a five-year tax levy for district operations by wide margin, 530 to 174.
In other election results, two new members were elected to the fire district’s five-member board and the board chair, running unopposed, was re-elected.
The fire district levy was the only money issue on the ballot in the Yachats area. Voters in the Seal Rock Fire District, which has a mutual aid agreement with Yachats Fire, turned down a levy request to hire firefighters to replace a dwindling number of volunteers. That vote was 323 to 492.
Voters in the Yachats fire district have renewed the levies every five years since first being asked in 1998 and 2007. The district’s other operating levy was approved last May by a similar 3-to-1 ratio.
The latest Yachats Fire District levy is expected to raise an estimated $330,400 to $371,800 a year over its five years. It carries a tax rate of 61 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, or $152 a year on property assessed at $250,000. The district’s other operating levy is 59 cents per $1,000. The district’s permanent tax base, established in 1997, is 29 cents per $1,000.
The district has a $1.27 million yearly budget, two administrators, two part-time employees and seven career firefighters who provide service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The district runs from south of Yachats, up the Yachats River and north to the Waldport city limits.
In a three-way race for a four-year term on the Yachats Fire Board, A’lyce Ruberg easily won with 338 votes. Incumbent Cy Kauffman had 139 and Drew Tracy 111. Ruberg is a nurse and a former emergency medical/fire services coordinator for CalFire, the statewide fire agency in California, and with the San Francisco Fire Department.
Donald Tucker, chair of the Southwest Lincoln County Water District north of Yachats, won a two-way race to fill a two-year term on the fire board by a 225 to 195 margin over Ernie Smith. The position had been vacant for a year.
Board chair Katherine Guenther was unopposed and received 499 votes to serve another four-year term.
The new board terms begin July 1.
In the only other Yachats-area measure on the ballot, small changes to the city of Yachats’ charter to acknowledge that it operates with a city manager form of government were approved 237 to 95.
Overall turnout in Lincoln County was 21 percent, according to County Clerk Dana Jenkins, much lower than the usual turnout of 30-35 percent during non-presidential election years.
