Salmon Creek Volunteer Fire Department Encourages Community to Vote for Special Fire District Status

View from Salmon Creek school showing Bear Buttes in the background and some of SCVFD’s vehicles in the middle ground.

Salmon Creek Volunteer Fire Department in Southern Humboldt is working to form a fire protection district. Next March, voters in the district will get to cast their ballots either pro or con.

So what is the proposed fire district?

The area outlined in yellow is the proposed district. Click on the map to enlarge.

As wildfires grow increasingly more intense, the proposed fire district will provide the fire department with more money directly (in the form of a parcel tax) and probably indirectly as the new designation will provide better options for getting grants. The proposed parcel tax is $75.00 per Assessor Parcel per year. The money raised that way (an estimated $20,000-$25,000 per year) will go directly to the newly formed district where local people will make decisions on how to spend the money to support their volunteer firefighters.

The SCVFD’s talking point document (see below for the entire piece) notes that one of the positive outcomes for residents if a fire district is formed is “[b]eing located within the boundaries of a fire district may greatly benefit your ability to obtain fire insurance or keep the policy you already have.”

According to SCVFD’s Fire Chief Dan Gribi, Lafco (Local Agency Formation Commissions are regional service planning agencies) will be sending out letters to all the registered voters in the proposed district on the 29th which will essentially say the same thing as the detailed information below.

Please note: Redheaded Blackbelt’s editor, Kym Kemp, lives in the proposed district and she endorses the proposal.