Voters in the Crooked River Ranch Fire & Rescue district will have their say on a levy that would add staff to a department that has seen call volumes increase as steadily as housing prices and the Central Oregon population.

Sean Hartley, Crooked River Ranch fire chief and paramedic, has been with the department since 2008. He said he remembers when the number of calls the department recevied started to tick up past 375 a year when he first joined the department.

“We were like ‘Wow, this is great, we’re busy, we’re doing stuff,’” he said. “Now, we’re averaging 600 calls a year.”

Those ever-increasing numbers proved too much for their staffing, which relied heavily on volunteers. Hartley said the district successfully garnered a state grant, which funded two firefighter/paramedic positions for two years. Hartley said, if the levy passes, the district will be able to keep those two positions in perpetuity and add an additional firefighter/paramedic to the staff.

Hartley said those staffing improvements would allow the department to have two career firefighter/paramedics on call at all times.

That additional coverage is important, said Hartley. Currently, if the district receives multiple calls at the same time, they have to ask for backup from Redmond or Madras, which can be significantly delayed as compared to local response times.

Hartley said that 75-80 percent of the calls received by the district are for medical assistance. As St. Charles pulls more of its medical services out of Redmond, Hartley said staff can be tied up for nearly two hours for a simple call that requires hospital transport, which now requires crews to go all the way to Bend and back.

The levy, if passed, would be at a fixed rate of $1.17 per $1,000 of assessed value. This new levy rate is a 28-cent increase over a 5-year levy set to expire in 2024.

That means for a property with an assessed, not market, value of $200,000 the cost increase over the expiring levy is $56 per year or about $4.66 per month. The total cost of the new levy for a property assessed at $200,000 would be $234 a year or $19.50 per month.

In addition to paying for staff, Hartley said passage of the levy can also allow the department to start saving funds for future capital improvements.

About 5,500 residents live in the Crooked River Ranch fire district, which is spread over more than 16 square miles stretching across Deschutes and Jefferson counties. Ballots can be dropped off or mailed from anywhere in the state. Deschutes ballots and Jefferson ballots will be tallied in each of their respective counties and the Jefferson County Clerk will certify the election results when official.