Process to form fire district underway

It’s often been said that opening a new restaurant is one of the riskiest undertakings, but in Josephine County getting a taxing district established makes starting up a new restaurant look like a sure thing.
Specifically, the formation of a rural fire protection district has been attempted numerous times in the county’s history, and as recently as 2022, but to no success. Despite this bleak track record, the Josephine County Commissioners are poised to establish a new fire district in the coming months.
On Wednesday, Sept. 18, the board held a weekly business session at Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass, where they weighed a vote on an order to initiate a series of public hearings leading up to the decision to form the district.
Note: A taxing district can be formed without a countywide election, but to collect taxes an election would need to be held.
“Today’s procedure, or portion of the procedure, is one of three formal votes that the board would take along the way if you so choose to establish this district,” county legal counsel Wally Hicks explained. “Today’s order would actually set the first public hearing. Of course, citizens can weigh in during the public comment of today’s portion of the meeting if they care to, but the public hearing would also have a formal section for persons to provide their testimony to the board regarding the formation of a rural fire protection district.”
Hicks went on, “In the meantime, also, if property owners are wishing to petition the board to either have their property included or excluded from the proposed boundary of the district, this is an opportunity for people to get that information to the county.”
One of the reservations some fire district proponents had during the last attempt at getting a district established was that a taxing rate had been set prior to the vote. This time around, there will not be an amount per thousand dollars of assessed property value associated with the district. Rather, voters within the district would decide on a rate after formation has taken place.
“A district can be established without a permanent base rate,” Hicks affirmed. “And in that scenario, which is the one that’s being contemplated here, it would not directly go or automatically go to the voters for consideration and approval. The district would go into effect and unless a petition is provided that would otherwise require an election, then the district would continue in existence and the board of governors of the district would be elected in the May election of 2025. So that’s how the timeline has been proposed.”
Commissioner Andreas Blech confirmed with Hicks that an exact boundary for the district would not be decided until after the first public hearing, so that landowners can weigh in on whether or not they want to be included.
“That’s why the boundary isn’t finalized because you’re tasked now with identifying the appropriate properties to be included or excluded,” Hicks said.
Commissioner Herman Baertschiger gave a brief overview of the order of events that will unfold should the fire district come to fruition:
The Board of Commissioners will form the district and set a boundary following two mandated public hearings, the first of which to take place Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 9 a.m. in the Anne G. Basker Auditorium
Voters within the district will elect a board of directors in the May 2025 election
The board of directors will propose a base tax rate to collect funding for fire district services
Voters will approve or shoot down the proposed rate in the November 2025 election
“We have tried to do this district several times,” Baertschiger remarked. “It’s been defeated on the ballot and the reason why is we’ve had special interest groups driving this and it always gets voted down. This time I want it to be driven by the citizens and that way hopefully we can establish this district and a rate that we all can agree upon and come to consensus and have a fire district.”
Baertschiger continued, “Without having a fire district, the way the Legislature is writing the rules prohibits people from doing certain activities on their property simply because they do not live in a fire district. So that is the intention of this. But the most important thing that we need to highlight is this should not be special interest driven. It should be grassroots by the people or what they want and what level of service they want, not what level of service somebody else thinks we need.”