In anticipation of new tax proceeds, Yachats Fire District administrators propose $2 million budget for 2023-24

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

YACHATS – Administrators for the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District are proposing a 2023-24 general fund budget of $2 million that begins to build up finances once it begins receiving taxes from a new, larger voter-approved tax levy in November.

But until property taxes from that new levy are collected, the district could have to borrow up to $300,000 through November to pay its bills. As it has in the past, once the property taxes arrive the district will pay off the loan by the end of December.

The district’s five-year borrow-and-repay-the-loan practice should end during the upcoming 2023-24 fiscal year as it receives money from the new levy. The levy of $1.59 per $1,000 assessed property value was approved by voters last November and replaces a 59 cent levy that expires June 30.

The combination of the new levy, an existing 61 cent levy and a 29 cent permanent tax base is expected to bring in $1.6 million, according to the budget prepared by district administrator Frankie Petrick and presented to a short-handed budget committee Monday.

The budget committee is made up of five fire board members and five district residents. But the district was unable to recruit someone for a vacant committee seat and two other members were absent Monday as Petrick walked them through the proposed budget line-by-line.

For the first time in years the district is expected to have a substantial ending balance of $350,000 next June 30, when the 2023-24 fiscal year ends, according to the proposed budget. The expected fund balance by the end of this June is $85,000.

Budget committee members asked few questions Monday and are scheduled to go over the proposed spending plan again June 12. The board is scheduled to vote on it at its regular meeting June 26.

Highlights of the proposed budget include:

• A line item of $555,000 in case the district receives a federal grant to pay the salaries of 2-4 additional firefighters for three years. Those grants more recently have gone to larger fire districts with higher call volume than Yachats, Petrick and board members say, and there is little expectation the district will get the grant. But it has to account for the money, should it get the grant;
• Wages for six firefighter/medics, two administrators and a part-time clerk would increase by $40,000 to $670,000 under yearly raises and a cost of living increase of up to 6 percent. “If we do not give raises we run the risk of losing staff to other agencies and we want to be able to keep the staff we currently have,” Petrick said in her budget message.
• An increase of $20,000 to $22,000 for retirement and medical benefits for volunteers under a more robust incentive program approved by the board earlier this month. The district, however, has just two longtime volunteers – Petrick and assistant administrator Shelby Knife – and one other who has been volunteering for 2-3 years.
• Administrative expenses are budgeted to double to $52,300 for 2023-24, including a doubling of office expenses and nearly three-fold increase in audit and legal expenses;
• The budget for building and ground maintenance is proposed to increase by $20,000 to $27,000;
• The budget anticipates borrowing up to $310,000 to pay the district’s bills between July and November, an increase from $138,200 in loans it needed this fiscal year;
• Adding $22,400 to the district’s reserve fund for equipment for a total of $30,446 in 2023-24. New equipment can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The last piece of equipment the district acquired was a now 29-year-old engine/pumper it bought in 2021 for $8,000 from the Newport Fire Department. An impeller on its main pump has failed and Petrick has budgeted $15,000 to repair it;
• No proposed increase in the $18,000 the fire district received this fiscal year for staffing South Lincoln Ambulance, a private nonprofit controlled by Petrick and Knife;
• The district still has $632,000 in the bank from a $7.7 million bond approved by voters in 2016 to build its new fire station and Petrick is proposing to spend $200,000 to build a fence along the north and south sides of the property just north of the Yachats city limits.