A proposal to create a regional hearth district in Camas and Washougal was failing in early election returns Tuesday.
Proposition 1 sought to change the governance of the Camas-Washougal Hearth Division and create a separate taxing district generally known as a regional hearth authority.
Outcomes launched by Clark County’s elections workplace Tuesday night present 4,067 “no” votes (51.96 p.c) and three,760 “yes” votes (48.04 p.c).
Officers within the cities of Camas and Washougal had hoped to kind the regional hearth authority to alleviate monetary strain on the cities’ normal funds and, in line with Camas-Washougal Hearth Chief Cliff Free, present long-term stability for the joint hearth division.
In March, Free mentioned the Camas-Washougal Hearth Division would cut up aside if voters rejected the regional hearth authority, returning to the kind of particular person city-run hearth departments that existed in Camas and Washougal earlier than an interlocal settlement merged the 2 hearth departments in 2014.
“I don’t think people are prepared,” Free mentioned final month. “And I think it’s hard for new residents to imagine the level of services we had before.”
Forming a regional hearth authority, Free mentioned, would assist stabilize funding with a levy fee of $1.05 for property house owners dwelling inside Camas and Washougal metropolis limits and would enable the fireplace chief to rent sufficient firefighters to employees a three-person engine crew. The Camas-Washougal Hearth Division is at the moment the one hearth division in Clark County working a two-person engine crew, Free mentioned.
To lift sufficient cash for the three-person engine crew and assist present long-term stability, the regional hearth authority would cost Camas-Washougal taxpayers a flat fee of $1.05 per $1,000 assessed property worth for hearth and EMS providers.
Earlier this month, a bunch of Camas-Washougal residents calling themselves Involved Taxpayers of Camas and Washougal raised about $1,000 to create “Ax the Tax” indicators calling for a “no” vote on Proposition 1. The treasurer of the group, Anthony Metzidis, a software program developer who moved to Washougal three years in the past, mentioned he and different Proposition 1 opponents didn’t consider metropolis officers would comply with by way of with the specter of dismantling the joint hearth division and would as a substitute determine a solution to keep the Camas-Washougal Hearth Division.
“I believe they can meet and resolve the differences,” Metzidis mentioned.
However Free insists that the interlocal settlement becoming a member of the Camas-Washougal Hearth Division, which is ready to run out on the finish of 2026, is just not a possible approach ahead.
The Columbian was unable to achieve Free for remark Tuesday evening.
