QUILCENE — Quilcene voters will be asked to renew the Emergency Medical Services levy for Quilcene Fire Rescue during the Aug. 3 primary election.
The Quilcene Fire Rescue levy — written on the ballot as Jefferson County Fire Protection District No. 2 — is a six-year renewal of the current property tax levy of 50 cents or less per $1,000 of assessed property value, which, if approved, would take effect in 2023, Fire Chief Tim McKern said.
The six-year levy brings in about $500,000 to the district. It funds three full-time emergency medical technician (EMT) positions, McKern said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Having paid staff is crucial for a small fire department because volunteer staff is more difficult to recruit and the volunteers have more time constraints then in previous years, McKern said.
“We were a volunteer agency for years here in Quilcene, but volunteers’ commitment today is totally different nationwide, not just in Quilcene and Jefferson County,” McKern said. “Volunteers and their commitment and time constraints, they don’t have what they had years ago.”
It wasn’t uncommon 10 years ago for volunteer fire departments to have upward of 50 volunteers available 24 hours every day, but now, departments are lucky to have 20 committed volunteers, and they have more limited time constraints due to day jobs and other responsibilities, McKern said.
“The volunteer commitment is still there, but the demand has really increased a lot over the last 10 years,” he said.
Due to the shortages of volunteers, the district has had to focus on staffing needs, and the calls that Quilcene Fire Rescue responds to show that the station needs a basic life support ambulance on-call at all times, with an advanced life support agency on contract, McKern said.
The levy only needs a 50 percent majority “yes” vote to pass, McKern said.
While the measure is on the primary election ballot, if approved, it will automatically go into effect in January 2023, as the district is able to use the primary election as a special election instead of waiting for the general election, said Quinn Grewell, Jefferson County elections coordinator.
Ballots were mailed to voters on Wednesday. There are 1,747 active voters for the Quilcene measure, but there also are 62 inactive voters who could vote in the election if they update their voter registration before July 26.
Registration can be online at voter.votewa.gov and in person at the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office, located on the first floor of the County Courthouse at 1820 Jefferson St. in Port Townsend.
Voting accommodations are available. For more information on registration and voting, call 360-385-9119.
More information on the Jefferson County primary election and where to drop off ballots can be found at https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/jefferson-county-primary-ballots-to-be-mailed-wednesday/.
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Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5, or at zjablonski@peninsuladailynews.com.
