Northern Lakes Fire District asks voters for tax to maintain fire staffing and stations

The Northern Lakes Fire District is facing a critical moment as it asks voters to approve a temporary levy renewal to pay to keep 13 firefighter-paramedics on staff and keep one of the district’s three fire stations from closing.

Northern Lakes includes the Hayden, Rathdrum and Twin Lakes areas in Kootenai County. There are fire stations in Hayden and Rathdrum, and a third under construction in the Garwood area. Currently, the district is staffing a station at the Coeur d’Alene Airport, and the firefighters there are intended to staff the Garwood station once it is complete.

Fire districts in Idaho cannot increase their budget more than 3% a year without a vote by the people, an amount that has been far overshadowed by inflation in recent years. Fire Chief Pat Riley said the district has had staffing issues for years and has tried five times in the last eight years to pass a permanent levy.

Two years ago, after another failed levy attempt, the district applied for and received a Federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant, which was used to hire 13 firefighter-paramedics. Riley said he knew the grant was only postponing the staffing crises. The number of calls the district responds to has increased about 70% in the last five years, Riley said.

“At that point, we had no other option than to seek that Federal SAFER grant,” he said. “That grant funds 100% of those 13 employees for three years. We would need to replace that grant.”

The additional staffing has allowed the district to cut two minutes off response times to priority calls and decreased the district’s reliance on mutual aid assistance from neighboring fire districts. The SAFER funding expires next year.

The current levy, which is set to expire in September 2025, collects $62 per $100,000 in taxable assessed home value. The district is asking voters to increase that to $94 per $100,000 in taxable assessed home value through September 2027.

Riley said the five previous levy attempts were for a permanent levy increase, so he’s hopeful that voters might agree to a temporary increase instead. The proposal will need only a simple majority of support to pass because it is a temporary increase.

If voters don’t approve the temporary levy replacement, the district likely will try again in May, Riley said. If a levy is not approved, the 13 firefighters will be laid off, and the airport fire station would be vacant once again, he said. The station is owned by the airport, but they never had enough funding to staff it. The district has been staffing it for the last two years, Riley said.

“We needed a place, and they needed people,” he said.

The Garwood station has been delayed, but will be completed whether or not the levy is approved, Riley said. However, if the levy fails and the district lays off 13 firefighters, there would be no firefighters to staff it.

“It is currently paid for,” he said. “That is currently taxpayer funded by impact fees. If that levy is unsuccessful, that’s a $4 million fire station we would have to close.”

Impact fees, which are paid by developers when they build new homes or apartments, cannot be used to pay for firefighter staffing, equipment maintenance or building upgrades.

If the levy fails, Riley anticipates that response times would suffer. That, in turn, could lead to a lowering of the district’s rating from the Idaho Surveying and Ratings Bureau and an increase in homeowner insurance premiums.

“Our response times are going to increase dramatically, and that’s what I’m trying to prevent,” he said.

The district also would be more reliant on mutual aid from other districts. However, if other districts are busy when a mutual aid call comes in, there would not be anyone to respond, Riley said.

“Quite frankly, we won’t be able to get to all of our calls,” he said.

If the levy passes and the district can retain the 13 firefighters paid for by the grant, the district also would hire enough new firefighters to staff the airport station with two firefighters per shift, Riley said, further reducing response times and improving coverage in the district.

Riley said he has been making presentations about the levy request to various groups and has received bipartisan support. He said people have been understanding about the funding request when it is explained. People are welcome to call him with questions or to schedule a presentation, Riley said.

“What I don’t want is people to be misinformed,” he said. “It is my strong desire and hope that we’ve proven to the public that we have done everything we could.”