POULSBO — After two decades of working off the same levy, the Poulsbo Fire Department will seek a lift from voters in the hopes of improving service and adding personnel.
Officials agree that the extra $1.7 million potentially raised annually will help offset the increased demand for services the department is experiencing. PFD’s call volume jumped 16 percent in 2006 — making it the highest increase in Kitsap County over 2005 tallies.
The 1987 levy increased the PFD’s tax base to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuations, and currently brings in $2.8 million annually. Levies have an inversely proportional relationship to property values and as home prices have increased in Poulsbo during the past 20 years, the amount collected per $1,000 has declined to 88 cents, said PFD public information officer Jody Matson. This is due to Initiative 747, which passed in 2001 and states that no more than a 1 percent increase may be collected by the PFD from property owners, said PFD Chief Jim Shields.
The May 15 levy vote seeks to increase the tax base to $1.29 per $1,000 assessed valuation, and is expected to fund the department for five years, Shields said.
“We’ll be able to keep up with rising costs, have expanded services, hire new employees, buy apparatus,” he said. “Basically keep up with ever rising inflation. The last two years we’ve been using reserve funds to keep up. We can’t continue doing that indefinitely. This is a positive approach to solving our problem.”
The increase in call volume has been linked to the rising population and housing boom in Poulsbo, Shields said. To maintain a safe community and good coverage as the city expands, the PFD is counting on the new levy — its sole source of income — to pass.
In 2007, a hypothetical owner of a $268,500 Poulsbo home (the median price, according to the Kitsap County Assessor’s Office) pays about $236.28 in PFD levy costs. If the lift passes, this same homeowner would pay about $346.37 — an additional $110.09.
In an effort get input on how to approach the voters with the 32 percent funding increase, the PFD created a citizens advisory group comprised of area residents, said Fire District No. 18 Commissioner Jim Ingalls.
“We have gone through the process this year of seeing how best to approach this,” he said. “We had 30 people on the citizens advisory committee, and they had three meetings. They discussed where they’d like to see us go in the future. It was extremely positive.”
“The citizens advisory group did their homework, they were attentive, they participated and they asked good questions,” said Fire District No. 18 Commissioner Conrad Green. “The first and second sessions were informational for them. The third of the sessions, they wanted to know what things are missing, sharing what they saw, what they thought they saw and their views on how to fund the future. It was very positive. I was very impressed by them.”
The levy will be voted on during a special election, Matson said.
“We are the last (fire department) in recent years to do that,” she said. “We’ve put it off as long as possible, but we can’t any more.”
If the levy fails, PFD would be forced to reduce its staff size and make cutbacks on equipment, Shields said.
He and the fire commission are positive, however, after meeting with the citizens advisory committee, and are now looking to present information about the levy to other community groups. Anyone interested can call Shields at (360) 779-3997.
