The Keizer Fire District prides itself on being a top quality provider of fire and emergency medical services.  With a response time goal of reaching every emergency call within six minutes of the original alarm 90 percent of the time; I am proud to say that we meet that goal 93 to 95 percent of the time.   When you have the need for our services, it can seem like forever, when you are waiting with a sick or injured loved one.

To serve you, we are staffing our first response ambulance with firefighter/paramedics 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  In addition, the district has staffed a second ambulance, 12 hours a day seven days a week.  This staffing was a result of the Fire District personnel offering to forego a cost of living wage increase during the 2007/2008 budget year.

On March 17th 2008, we welcomed our new Fire Chief, Jeff Cowan.  Jeff comes to us from Mason County Fire District #5 in Allyn, Washington.  Jeff has been involved in fire and emergency medical rescue service for 28 years and has been a welcome addition to our staff.  Jeff has spent the first few months on the job learning about the Keizer Fire District and the City of Keizer.  We look forward to his leadership as we continue to offer the best possible service to our Keizer residents.

As we look to the future, we will be asking the residents of Keizer Fire District to renew our five year Local Option Levy.  The current levy expired June 30, 2008.  On the November ballot, we will be asking the option levy be renewed at the current rate of $0.35 cents per $1,000 assessed value.  It means that the owner of a $200,000 home would be assessed $70 per year to support the Fire District.  If passed, the Local Option Levy will allow us to maintain the services we are currently providing without any cuts to staffing or hours of service.  We have prepared our budget for the 2008/2009 year and by making some fund transfers and are able to balance the needs of the District with the funds available for the remainder of the budget year.  However, this requires that we deplete our equipment replacement sinking fund to balance the budget.  There is no large equipment purchases planned next year, but this fund needs to be replenished in future years to prepare for planned replacement of fire engines, ambulances, and staff vehicles.

Our source of funding is derived from a permanent tax base of $1.35 per $1,000 assessed value of property located inside the Keizer Fire District boundary.    In addition we receive revenue from ambulance medical insurance billing.  We also receive a share of the 9-1-1 tax and a share of the transient occupancy (hotel/motel) tax which are distributed by the City of Keizer.

The Keizer Fire District has a substantial amount of property located within the Keizer Urban Renewal district.  When an urban renewal district is formed, the value of the property at the time of formation is frozen.  Tax revenue for the years the urban renewal district is in place remains fixed.  As the property is developed, the additional value is calculated and the additional tax revenue goes to the urban renewal district to payoff infrastructure costs.  However, the Fire District continues to offer services to the area as it is built out with businesses, homes and adult care facilities, without the benefit of receiving the additional tax revenue.  It does create a significant challenge for the District to provide additional services without additional revenue.  In the 2007/2008 budget cycle, the amount of funds we were not able to capture because of urban renewal amounted to approximately $380,000.

The Fire District understands the need for urban renewal programs and creation of infrastructure as new areas of the city are built out; this message is only to highlight the needs that we have and the reasons for which we are in a financial squeeze. The renewal of our Local Option Levy allows us to make up the difference in funds until the urban renewal is forecast to go away in 2011.

The Keizer Fire District is proud of the service we provide, its members, and the value we add to the community.  Your Board of Directors is available anytime to discuss our Fire District along with our new Fire Chief.  Please feel free to contact us should you have any questions at all.  We work hard for you.

Sincerely,

Greg Ego
President of the Board of Directors
(503) 390-9111