Firefighters seek funding

A 5,000-acre grass fire that burned near Edison in 1980 left a scar on the land and was the birth of the unincorporated area’s volunteer fire department.

In the years after the department’s inception, donations poured in. Melodrama and supper events brought in $5,000 a night.

But now the department’s loyal supporters are gradually dying and newcomers do not seem as quick to open their pocketbooks. So the department is asking voters to create a taxing district so that all who might benefit from its services contribute equally.

“We have a fairly numerous amount of 40-acre owners on the west side of the district that don’t donate,” said M.B. Anderson, one of the department’s founders who is leading the charge to create the Edison Fire Protection District. “It’s not like it was 10 years ago.”

If voters agree to create and fund the fire protection district, a $100,000 property would be taxed an additional $250 annually.

Chet Baker, George Ray Keller, Mike Metcalfe, Clyde Chess and Paul Jenkins are running unopposed for a five-member board of directors for the proposed district.

There is no organized opposition.

Ballot measures 4A, 4B and 4C all deal with the founding and funding of the fire protection district.

To create the district, voters would need to pass ballot question 4A. In order for the district to operate, at least one of the other measures needs to pass.

Question 4B would establish a tax rate.

Question 4C would free the district from restrictions imposed by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights’ requirement that spending only increase in step with a formula based on population growth and inflation. Passage would allow the district to use grant money.

The department has nine volunteer firefighters on call to fight grass fires in a 350-square-mile area east of Colorado Springs.

“We do not claim to be able to put out a structure fire,” Anderson said. “We all live too far from the firehouse to be able to get there. We want people to know that we can probably put a grass fire out to keep their house from burning.”

Structure fires and medical calls are mostly handled by adjacent fire departments, as well as American Medical Response and Flight For Life, Anderson said.

The official fire protection district designation would require firefighters to undergo additional training to meet state requirements, Anderson said.

That will mean a decrease in insurance rates for residents of the district, he said.

“Even though it is an increase in tax, it will be a decrease in the insurance,” Anderson said. “It might not be equal or might not even be close to equal, but it will be a reduction.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0232 or carlyn.mitchell@gazette.com

ON THE BALLOT

Questions 4A, 4B and 4C:

The Edison Volunteer Fire Department is seeking voter approval for the formation and funding of the Edison Fire Protection District.

The department is currently funded by donations only. Approval of the taxing district would generate $27,000 in annual income for the department.

The measures are part of El Paso County’s mail-ballot election. Ballots will be mailed to the majority of registered voters Friday (those who registered after Sept. 26 will receive their ballots later).

Ballots must be received at the Clerk & Recorder’s Office, 200 S. Cascade St., Colorado Springs, CO 80903 by Nov. 6. Call the El Paso County Election Department at 575-8683 with questions.