Equipment Bond Measure on Keizer Ballot.
(KEIZER, Ore) — On Tuesday evening at the Fire District Board meeting, the motion was passed to ask the citizens of Keizer for a small increase in their taxes to better serve them.
Fire Chief Jeff Cowan said, "We do the best to maintain our equipment and keep it in good working order, but time and wear are against us.
We knew our fleet of engines and ambulances would have to be replaced, but we made the choice to pay off our station bond first and be financially responsible.
Our priority is service and staffing, now w e need to replace our equipment."
This bond will be at a lower starting rate than the Station Bond which began at $.20 (twenty cents)/$1,000 of assessed value.
The amount decreased over time as local growth and new construction added to our assessed valuation on properties in Keizer.
The station bond will be paid off in February 2016. If passed, the Emergency Equipment Bond would provide the funding to replace three engines, five medic units, one command vehicle, one rescue, one brush rig and have the 23 year old ladder refurbished.
The equipment would be purchased over the course of the bond.
Most of the purchases would occur within the first two years of the bond to replace the aging fleet.
Currently two of the engines are over twenty years old and lack modern safety features to keep firefighters safe.
All three of the ambulances need to be replaced due to age, wear, mileage and reliability.
The rescue vehicle was taken out of service due to unreliability.
The proposed equipment bond has an estimated tax rate of $.14 (fourteen cents)/$1,000 of assessed value and will bring in approximately $6.2 million.
This is a link to the Keizer Fire Budget Page: http://keizerfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Adopted-Budget-FY-2015-2016.pdf
Source Keizer Fire Department;
