EVERGREEN – The Evergreen Fire District is now looking for other ways to keep things running after voters turned down a mill levy request earlier this week.
The district is struggling to continue to provide current levels of service and increasing call volumes, personnel turnover, and challenging revenue shortfalls. A five-year levy providing about $145,000 per year was approved by voters in 2014, but that measure will expire next June.
The District has 20 part-time employees and three salaried positions the chief, the fire marshal and an administrative assistant, but the employees do not receive benefits.
Evergreen Fire District president John Foust says the retention of qualified experienced employees is something that will continue to plague the department moving forward.
"We will continue on whatever they decide but if we don’t do something Evergreen is going to be a training facility, people won’t stay there, they can’t stay there. You cannot make a career at Evergreen right now," Foust told MTN News.
Taxes on a home valued at $200-thousand would have increased by about $168 per year under the proposed levy.
