BRINNON — It’s coming down to the wire for voting in the Brinnon Fire Department levy election.
Votes will be counted at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the election to renew an emergency medical services property tax levy and make it permanent.
The levy vote is the only special election Tuesday on the North Olympic Peninsula.
As of Friday, 455 voters — 47 percent of the 968 registered voters in the Brinnon Fire District — had returned ballots to the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office.
The present levy of 50 cents per $1,000 property tax valuation required a simple majority when it was approved in 2009 to become effective in 2010.
To make it permanent — at the same amount — requires a 60 percent supermajority.
If this year’s levy measure fails, the department will have to lay off career staff and be unable to provide regular ambulance response, said Fire Chief Patrick Nicholson.
He said the department would cease transportation to the hospital at the end of fiscal year 2015.
The department will be limited to one fire station providing fire and rescue response with limited first aid ability by volunteers, he said.
“Twenty-four-hour medical aid response will no longer be guaranteed,” he has said.
The levy represents more than 50 percent of the district’s income, he said.
Nicholson said the department’s yearly budget is $590,960, which includes $380,460 for fire and $210,500 for EMS.
Making the levy permanent will eliminate the need to approach voters every five years, the fire chief said.
The initial levy could, by law, be set for only five years, “Legally, we could only establish the EMS levy for a five-year term initially,” Nicholson.
Now, the district can seek to establish it as a permanent levy so that it does not require renewal every five years.
Jefferson County Assessor Jeff Chapman said all of the fire districts in the county have permanent emergency medical services levies that assess 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
A permanent levy is necessary for the department to establish a long-term budget, Nicholson said.
Nicholson said the passage of the present levy, which expires this year, allowed the department to hire four firefighters; purchase equipment, fuel for emergency medical services vehicles and consumable medical supplies; pay ambulance transport fees; and perform vehicle maintenance, among other daily expenses.