PORT TOWNSEND — An anonymous 11th-hour concern that a Nov. 8 ballot proposal to merge Jefferson County fire districts Nos. 1 and 6 could mean new taxes has Mike Mingee scratching his head.
“No fire merger” signs mysteriously appeared last week and then disappeared over the weekend in parts of Jefferson County Fire District No. 6 along state Highway 19, Mingee, East Jefferson Fire Rescue’s chief, said.
One sign even appeared in Mingee’s Kala Point neighborhood.
Proposition 1 is the measure before Fire District No. 6’s 3,186 voters.
Although no individual or group was identified as paying for the signs, Mingee said he can only explain them by believing some voters may be falsely linking a tax increase with the merger.
That is not the case, Mingee said.
On the contrary, he said the proposal is intended to save tax dollars.
“It’s been heavily researched. There is no increase in taxes,” he said of the year-old proposal to merge Jefferson County Fire District No. 6 (Cape George and Kala Point) with Fire District No. 1 (Chimacum, Port Hadlock, Irondale and Marrowstone Island).
No opposition voiced
During the 24 public meetings on the merger, “Not once has someone come forward to express opposition,” Mingee said.
“I would have liked it if they would have come forward before now.”
Mingee, along with Fire District Nos. 1 and 6 commissioners, have said the merger is intended to put more firefighters on duty and provide a higher level of service and efficiency.
“It’s intended to use the money more for operations, less for administration,” said Mingee.
“As we say, it puts more boots on the street.”
The new fire district, if approved by voters, would stretch from Chimacum to the Port Townsend city limits.
Should the merger pass, another fire and rescue services merger election will take place next year, which would join the merged districts with the Port Townsend Fire Department.
The Port Townsend Fire Department consolidated with the Cape George and Chimacum fire departments earlier this year.