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QuickTake:
The Western Lane Ambulance District, which covers 680 square miles of western Lane County, faces rising costs and increased demand. But its request on the Nov. 3 ballot seeks to renew the levy at its current rate.
The Western Lane Ambulance District is asking voters in the Nov. 3 election to renew a local option tax that provides about 30% of its budget.
The district provides emergency medical services to more than 20,000 residents across about 680 square miles of western Lane County, including Florence, Dunes City and Mapleton. Robert Chance, the district fire and emergency medical services chief, said it employs 24 full-time staffers, along with about 20 part-timers and six volunteers.
The levy was first approved in 2012, Chance said, and since then, voters have renewed it every five years. The current levy is scheduled to expire in 2027.
The proposal on the Nov. 3 ballot calls for the levy to be renewed at its current rate, 45 cents for every $1,000 of assessed property value.
Like ambulance districts across the state, the Western Lane Ambulance District is facing a financial squeeze as costs rise and demand increases. Calls for service have increased by 60% since the levy was first approved in 2012. Chance said the district responded to about 5,000 calls for service in 2025.
Despite that, Chance said the district’s board of directors opted to keep the rate unchanged in this year’s levy proposal, in part after watching similar districts in Lane County struggle to pass their levy requests.
Assessed values vary throughout the district. In Florence, for example, the median assessed value of a house in 2025 was $240,128, so a 45-cent levy would cost that homeowner about $108 a year. In Dunes City, with a median assessed value of $341,080 in 2025, the 45-cent levy would cost a homeowner about $153 a year.
If the measure passes, the levy is estimated to raise about $6.679 million over five years.
That would help the district maintain its ambulance services, but Chance said “eventually we’re going to have to find a way — which we’ve been doing — to try to cut down on expenditures, or we’re going to need more revenue. … The costs have just ballooned. It’s not sustainable.”
