Dexter voters to decide on fire district tax renewal

Voters living in the Dexter Rural Fire Protection District will decide in the May 19 election whether to renew the district’s five-year local option tax, which funds around-the-clock staffing, daily operations, equipment, training and maintenance.

The measure, first passed by more than 60% of the district’s voters in 2022, expires at the end of the year. The renewal would not increase the fire district’s annual local option tax rate, currently $1 per $1,000 of assessed property value. 

The district projects the tax would raise a total of $1.42 million over five years if voters renew it.

The Dexter Rural Fire Protection District serves about 2,800 residents in the unincorporated community of Dexter and surrounding areas, operating with four full-time firefighters, along with volunteers and limited seasonal staff in the summer. 

The district has only one fire station in Dexter and does not operate its own ambulance service. Instead, ambulance transport is provided through a service area covered by Eugene Springfield Fire, with Dexter crews responding first to provide initial medical care, often arriving 15 to 20 minutes before an ambulance can transport patients to the hospital. 

Dexter Fire Chief Larry Wooldridge said the tax helps the district maintain an aging fleet of vehicles. The district’s two fire engines were built in 2003 and 2006, he said, and have required significant repairs, including recently rebuilding the pumps in both engines. 

The continuation of the local option tax funding would allow the department to maintain those vehicles and set aside money to eventually replace them, he said.

For a property with an assessed value of $235,623 — the current median in Lane County, according to the county assessor — the local option tax would equal $235.62 a year.

Around-the-clock response at risk

Wooldridge told Lookout Eugene-Springfield that if the tax renewal doesn’t pass, the fire district would no longer be able to provide around-the-clock medical response and fire protection starting in July 2027. He said the department would have to reduce its staff of four full-time firefighters by two, and that there’s a “high likelihood” it would mean eliminating his job.

Fire district officials estimate the tax would generate $268,000 in revenue in its first year — about a quarter of the district’s current fiscal year budget.

Failure of the tax would likely leave the department with only one firefighter on duty during the day, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., while the other is off, Wooldridge said. During other times, he said “there wouldn’t be anybody” working. The local option tax has allowed the department to maintain around-the-clock staffing since it was first passed, he added.

If there were a fire while no one was on duty, Wooldridge said the department would have to rely on neighboring fire departments — such as the Lowell Rural Fire Protection District and Pleasant Hill Goshen Fire & Rescue — to fight fires. 

“That would not be a sustainable model at all,” he said.

Medical calls would also be affected. Without on-duty staff, Wooldridge said patients likely would not receive any medical support until an ambulance from Eugene Springfield Fire arrives, which can take 10 to 20 minutes.

“If somebody’s having a heart attack or something like that, minutes, seconds count,” he said. Not having Dexter firefighters on scene before an ambulance arrives “could make the difference between them being able to push through or not.”

How to learn more

The fire district will soon send out a community mailer to provide more information about the local option tax to residents, Wooldridge said.

The district will also hold two town halls in April for voters to ask questions. They are scheduled for:

• Wednesday, April 8, 6:30 p.m. at the district’s fire station, 82781 Barbre Road in Dexter
• Saturday, April 25, 4 p.m., also at the district’s fire station.