Three fire districts in Bonner County are seeking to expand their budgets through ballot measures in the May 20 election. 

If each permanent levy override increase request receives 66% approval from voters, property owners in the Sagle, Westside and Northside fire districts will experience a higher mill rate to fund new equipment, facility repairs and expanded staffing for fire response. 

“In the fire service, we're about 20 years behind where we need to be when it comes to staffing and equipment,” said Selkirk Fire Rescue & EMS Chief Jeff Armstrong, who coordinates the three districts’ operations. “If we can't look at increasing our funding, we are not going to be able to operate at the current level we're operating at.” 

Currently, property owners in the Sagle, Westside and Northside districts pay $88, $51 and $20, respectively, per $100,000 in taxable assessed value each year. If the proposed levies pass, residents’ new amounts will be $122, $122 and $61— an increase of $34, $71 and $41, respectively. 

Armstrong said he worked with staff to determine the amounts and that each increase is designed to fund a needs-based budget he has been developing since becoming chief in May 2024. 

“Each district was evaluated separately,” Armstrong said. “We really are working with representatives from those communities to make sure that these levies are addressing exactly what these fire districts need.” 

For Sagle, a budget increase would enable the district to repair facilities and hire two firefighters to support the Sagle and Careywood areas. 

“That would allow us to make sure that both stations stay adequately staffed,” Armstrong said. 

For Westside, funding would allow the number of firefighters on call per day to rise from one to three, and help the district replace a fire engine. A successful levy in Northside would enable the district to staff its Samuels station, which would reduce response times significantly at the north end of the district. 

According to Armstrong, the districts’ staffing needs correlate with local population growth and a decline in volunteerism. 

“The modern world has put different pressures on us,” he said. “Nobody's looking to get up at four o'clock in the morning and go to a call.” 

Many volunteers today use the opportunity as a stepping stone to gain experience before leaving for a paying job in the industry. 

“We invest all this money, and then they come into the system and give us a little bit of benefit. Just about the time they're able to work on their own, they're gone,” said Armstrong. 

Current budgets, Armstrong said, only allow for a single staff firefighter at some stations — a model he described as “unsafe, inadequate and ineffective.” 

“Having one person arrive at a structure fire and being there for 10 minutes by themselves, the only thing they can do is put their arm around the homeowner and say, ‘I am really sorry. I am here to console you,’” he said. 

By budgeting to have three firefighters available to respond to incidents, the districts are aiming to be able to reliably coordinate safe, fast and effective efforts. 

“There's a huge breakover point when you go from two-person staffing to three-person staffing in the things you're able to accomplish,” Armstrong said. 

For equipment, vehicles are a primary concern as aging engines approach 20-25 years of service and the end of their useful life. 

For many departments across the country, “at 15-20 years, they're talking about making them reserves. At 25 years, they're getting them off the books, and we're running a 25-year-old fire engine that's going to have to continue to last us,” Armstrong said. 

New fire engines can cost close to $1 million apiece, and while Armstrong envisions seeking value by purchasing used vehicles, he said he hopes to end the practice of sweeping equipment needs under the rug for future administrators to address. 

“I don't want to tell everybody, ‘Well, everything's hunky dory,’ because that's what every other fire chief here has done,” Armstrong said. “They've told the public that everything's fine, and I'm telling the public that everything's not fine. I'm telling the public that we are struggling.” 

As residents prepare to vote this spring, Armstrong emphasized the districts’ fiscal responsibility and offered to illustrate how past funding has been managed effectively. 

He also underlined that the districts are unassociated with Bonner County and Bonner County EMS, which is facing financial hardship after a surprise budget shortfall came to light in November 2024. 

“We aren't them. We don't manage our money that way,” Armstrong said. “I will scale before I get us in a position like that where we're overspending and we're spending through our reserves,” he added. “That's a message I have to get out there.” 

Armstrong noted that if voters approve the levies, the burden on individual taxpayers will be greatest in the first year, since population growth will spread the same load across more residents over time. 

“Our budget is our budget, and it's distributed amongst the community,” he said. “As the community grows, the levy rate goes down.” 

In sharing the districts’ needs and proposed budgets at a Jan. 8 public workshop and through future community outreach events, Armstrong said he hopes to help residents make informed decisions at the polls. 

“One of the bad habits that I have as a voter is that if I don't understand something, I vote no,” Armstrong said. “I want them to feel empowered to walk in and vote no, but I don't want them to vote no because they didn't understand.” 

If the levies fail to pass, Armstrong said, the districts will scale their operations to provide the best service possible with the funding available. 

“Our firefighters are still going to give 110%,” said Armstrong. “They're still going to do everything they can to save your property. They're going to risk their life to save your life.” 

Come May, the measures’ outcomes will be entirely in residents’ hands; voters are positioned to directly express whether they believe districts’ proposed budgets are worth funding. 

“At the end of the day, they choose what service level they want, and they choose what service level we provide,” Armstrong said.

    The red portion of each bar represents the amount currently paid by property owners, the yellow portion is the estimated increase, and the combined height represents the total estimated annual rate if a levy is approved.