By Mayor Alice Norris
"All things are difficult before they are easy". —Thomas Fuller
Oregon City has a new brush fire. (Haven’t we had more than our share lately?) This fire began to smolder when the contract between Or-egon City and our Fire District was signed nearly five years ago. The contract worked for Oregon City in keeping General Fund costs down, but did not keep pace with Fire District costs. Due to our good partnership, we have been able to keep this contract working for nearly five years.
Because of the funding gap between what Oregon City residents pay for our contracted fire service and what the rest of Clackamas County Fire District #1 pays, the District Board will terminate our contract on June 30, 2008. This gives us just over a year to find a solution for long term fire and emergency medical services.
What’s the problem?
- Fire costs have risen about 5% per year.
- Oregon City’s fire contract payments increased only 2.41% per year.
- Holcomb Fire Station serves Oregon City, but we do not pay for it.
- South End Fire Station remains closed with inadequate response times in southern Oregon City.
- CCFD#1 residents pay a $2.40/$1,000 tax rate; Oregon.City’s contract equates to $1.59/$1,000.
We have very few options. The best solution is annexing to the fire district like Milwaukie, Happy Valley, Damascus and Johnson City have done. Going without fire service is not an option. Cutting $1.5 million out of city services is not an option for a sustainable community. We’ve been doing that for the last decade!
You will likely have an opportunity to vote on a solution in November. I urge you to learn about city fire service, insurance rates, and medical emergency response times. No issue is more important than public safety and we must work together to find a way to keep Oregon City safe, healthy, and livable.