Palouse fire district plans to try again

Fire District #4 out of Palouse had a failed levy this election, the levy having been for emergency medical services. It would have been in the amount of $0.50 per $1,000 of assessed property valuation for six consecutive years.

Fire district commissioner Ben Barstow told the Gazette that in hindsight he can see that voters were probably confused by the levy.

“When I read it on the ballot, I was confused,” he said.

Barstow said the confusion may have stemmed from the wording of the levy being classified as a supplemental levy. He said some voters may have felt they were going to be paying more for a supplemental levy.

“It's true that it is a supplemental levy technically,” said Barstow. “And that makes it sound new, but it wasn't. A few years ago, we had a fire district levy, but it wasn't quite enough to cover both fire and EMS.”

The district has a levy for fire and another for EMS, and when the levy was first started, the district set it at the maximum amount. However, it was later cut in half.

“We reduced it in half because we had built up a pretty good reserve and realized we didn't need it that high,” said Barstow.

Barstow said the district will now use reserves to fund the next year of emergency medical services.

“Fortunately, we have enough reserves to carry us through the year,” he said.

Barstow said when next November's election comes up again, the district will likely send out educational information to voters about the levy. He said they did not do that this time around.