Short a lot of money they thought they would have in 2003, commissioners in Fire District 3 had some work to do this week.
In a public budgeting session, the board of commissioners had to fine tune the coming year’s budget without benefit of an expected levy increase. Voters defeated a fire district levy increase by about 1,500 votes on Nov. 5. Approval would have increased the amount property owners pay for fire protection from 79 cents for every $1,000 of property value to 90 cents.
Commissioners and district Chief Don Smith spent two hours going through the budget line by line before declaring it ready to approved at the next meeting.
The preliminary budget, which Smith prepared in August, was almost a carbon copy of the 2002 budget, but with the addition of two salaried captains at $35,014 each. It was Smith’s hope to have paid staff on 24-hour shifts at the new Freeland station by next year.
But the commissioners, disappointed with the levy failure, nixed the idea.
“These are hard times for everyone,” said board Chairman Bob Elliott. “We lost our levy, and our percentage is depreciating.”
The levy would have given the district the same property tax millage rate it had eight years ago and $300,000 more in revenues than it will have under the existing rate.
Elliott said the income loss, plus the district’s current staffing, make adding more paid staff a luxury.
“The district does not need two captains at this time,” he said. “They would not solve anything.”
He cited September’s barge fire in Clinton as an example of how well the district functions with a volunteer force.
“I am not saying we won’t ever add the captain positions, but for right now we are doing fine without them.”
Another victim of the levy failure was the proposed construction of a training facility on Thompson Road property the district purchased this year. The extra levy money would have allowed the district to begin putting money in a building fund for that project — which would have included a station for emergency medical and rescue vehicles and, possibly, an Island County sheriff’s precinct. Elliott and fellow commissioners Mike Helland and Dennis Webster agreed to put a hold on that project.
However, the board was not opposed to all new expenditures. The commissioners penciled in an administrative clerk position for a cost of $10,000. That clerk will serve as a backup for the district’s administrative assistant, Paula Schuler.
Even Elliott voiced his support for spending the money.
“There is a need for more administrative support,” he said.
The loss of funding had the commissioners looking inward to place blame. Elliott the district failed to educate the voting public on why the levy increase was important.
“They saw the new stations at Freeland and Saratoga and thought we must have a lot of money,” he said. “What they didn’t realize is the district saved money for several years to fund the construction of the Freeland station. We didn’t ask for a levy to build it.”
Another item removed from the preliminary budget was an $1,800 Power Point smart board to go with a new video projection system proposed for the Freeland fire station. Darin Reid, the district’s special services chief, requested a $6,400 video projection system be permanently installation in the training room in the Freeland station. A mounted projector at $3,000 was given the go-ahead.
The district’s projected income is $1.7 million with expenditures of $1.3 million. If the levy had been approved, projected income would have been $2 million.
