North Idaho’s Timberlake Fire Protection District asking for first-ever levy increase

The Timberlake Fire Protection District is asking voters to approve a levy increase for the first time in its history so it can hire enough firefighters to have more than one response crew available at a time.

The North Idaho district, created in 1999 by the merger of the Athol and Bayview fire departments, covers 83 square miles of Kootenai County, plus the Little Blacktail Community in Bonner County. In addition to Athol and Bayview, it includes Farragut State Park, Silverwood Theme Park and the U.S. Navy Acoustic Research Detachment.

By law, Idaho fire districts can only increase their annual budget by 3% without a public vote. Going above that requires a levy override.

The district employs seven full-time firefighters who staff the fire station in Athol 24 hours a day, seven days a week in teams of two. That limits the district to responding to one call at a time, and since the district also staffs its own ambulance, taking a patient to the hospital can take the crew out of service for hours at a time, said Fire Chief Brandon Hermenet.

The district is asking voters to approve a permanent levy override of $700,000 per year, which would cost taxpayers about $30.94 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value. The money would be used to hire five firefighters, which would allow the district to fully staff two fire stations with crews of two around the clock.

Initially, the new crew would staff Station 3 on Clagstone Road but would shift to the fire station in Bayview once it is remodeled, Hermenet said. The district plans to use the development impact fees it collects to add living quarters to the Bayview station so it can be staffed around the clock, Hermenet said. Currently, the station is used only for storage. The remodel is expected to be complete in 18 to 24 months.

The district began collecting impact fees, which are charged on new development, in 2011, but those funds cannot be used to pay for personnel or normal operating expenses; they can only be used for facilities and certain equipment, such as fire engines.

The new firefighters would allow the district to reduce response times and better handle the growth happening in the area, Hermenet said. The population has increased nearly 25% since 2010, and the number of calls has increased by 100% since 2014.

“We’ve had a ton of both residential and commercial (growth),” Hermenet said. “Our commercial growth has probably quadrupled in the last four years.”

Tourists, particularly those going to Silverwood, also temporarily boost the population each summer.

The district’s board of commissioners decided to ask for a permanent levy override, which requires two-thirds support, because the funds would be used to pay for salaries that would also be permanent, Hermenet said. The need for additional firefighters has been clear for a while, he said, but now that need is becoming more critical.

“We’ve been tightening the belt,” he said. “We’ve been holding off on the levy until we really needed it.”

Since the district has not previously tried running a levy, Hermenet said he’s not sure how many voters will support the request. The district hasn’t identified a path forward if the levy fails, but adding staff will be impossible without additional funding, he said.

Hermenet has been speaking to various community groups to give out information about the levy, and there is information available online at timberlakefire.com. Representatives from the district will be at the Super 1 store in Athol Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. to hand out flyers to shoppers and answer questions people may have.