Fire District 10 seeks voter approval to buy tanker truck

The firefighters working in the Oakesdale area are preparing to ask their district citizens for $75,000 in levy money to fund a fire truck that can hold more water.

Fire District 10 has been relying on outside help from Rosalia, Tekoa and the area fertilizer companies to bring in water trucks when needed at the scene of a fire.

“They’ve always been generous enough to bring over one of their tanks for us to use. We’d kind of like to have one of our own to not have to rely on those guys all the time,” said Fire Chief Gary Shrope.

The levy proposal will be the lone funding measure on the Aug. 18 primary ballot which is expected to be mailed out to voters at the end of this week.

If approved by the voters, the district would be able to collect $37,000 for each of the next two years.

Fire District 10 has 173 active voters in the Oakesdale and Farmington areas, according to the county elections office. Voters residing within the towns of Oakesdale and Farmington are not in the rural district and will not see the measure on their primary ballot.

Fire District 10 volunteers are generally the same people who respond to fires inside Oakesdale and Farmington and normally provide assistance to surrounding districts. The district also offers use of its new station in Oakesdale.

The tender truck the district wants to buy would be a used model, Shrope said. It can hold more water than a brush fire attack truck and having it on line would mean crews would have more water supplied faster.

If approved, the levy would be approximately 70 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, Shrope said. Stretching over two years, they hope to collect $37,000 the first year and the same amount the next year.

Shrope said the exact cost of a used truck isn’t known at this time.

Any excess funds derived from the levy would probably be used to upgrade the district’s two brush trucks. One feature the district would like to add is a front nozzle with remote controls in the cab.

Another long-range goal of the district is to acquire a smaller “fast attack” truck which would be easier to maneuver. The truck would carry less water but could be used in tandem with a tender.

Shrope emphasized the fast-attack truck was only an idea at this point; the main push for the levy proposal is for a water tender.