East County Fire & Rescue to hold Q&A on levy lid lift

East County Fire and Rescue will host two informational sessions to answer questions from the community about its upcoming fire levy lid lift to fund emergency services, which is on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The sessions will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Oct. 29 at Station 91, 600 N.E. 267th Ave., Camas.

If approved, the vote would revert the levy collection back to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value, the same rate the levy was in 2008. Since 2008, the levy rate has declined to $1.29, which happened as property values rose to limit the fire district to roughly the same amount of revenue per year.

The district is allowed a 1 percent increase per year, but is having trouble keeping up with inflation. District officials decided to ask residents for a fire lid lift to restore funding and maintain emergency service levels.

The increased funding would be used to maintain the current emergency service level, keep facilities in working order, improve training and repair equipment.

According to a release from the district, emergency call volumes have increased almost 52 percent since 2007, meaning added costs for personnel, apparatus, equipment and supplies.

Information about the levy lid lift can also be found at East County’s website, www.ecfr.us.

Ballots will be mailed to voters on Friday. In order to be approved, the ballot measure needs to receive a simple majority of votes cast