All 61 of the Northern Lakes Fire District personnel, which include firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, captains, battalion chiefs and engineers, are forgoing raises this year to try to help 21 of their own keep their jobs amid a tax levy that’s up for a vote to give the fire district proper funding. 

The levy would provide the fire district $4.5 million over the next two years for salaries, equipment maintenance and support for the firehouses currently in place.

If the levy passes, all personnel will keep their jobs and wait until a future date for raises. If it doesn't pass, about a third of the NLFD crew will lose their jobs, and those who remain still won't see a raise.

“We're just asking for what we need,” Northern Lakes Fire District Fire Chief Kevin Croffoot said. “There's no hidden, secret, fancy razzoo thing we're going to buy. This is to maintain the staffing and maintain the operation of what we do.”

As the fire district’s future budget was reviewed in June, the realization hit that raises would “materially harm” the district by reducing the force. As the Local 4045 union discussed paths forward with the budget in more depth during mid to late August, it didn’t take much convincing to get on board with forgoing raises this year.

“If the decision was made to selfishly take a raise at the expense of someone else's job, that was not something that anyone was interested in doing,” International Association of Fire Fighters Local 4045 Vice President Christian Aagesen said. “We thought it was more important that we keep the people who are working here, keep them on the job, keep them ready to work to get out there in the community. That was more important than taking a year's pay increase.”

As prices rise around the area, those at the Northern Lakes Fire District aren’t looking for insane raises that would put them in mansions eating lobster dinners every night. They want to keep their salaries in line with rising costs. The average raise would have come out to about $3,200 per person, leaving $200,000 in raises on the table.

“A lot of the times when we're talking about an increase in wages, it's just to maintain salaries based on the rate of inflation,” IAFF Local 4045 President Jarrod Pitts said. "I think I've probably gotten a raise above the inflationary rate adjustment, probably two or three times in my career. It's very, very, very rare in the almost 15 years that I've been employed at Northern Lakes.”

The district has taken measures to save on costs such as sending firefighters to train to repair the self-contained breathing apparatuses, which help them breathe clean air, and to become certified in sewing to fix uniforms. Still, there are only so many places to cut expenses before running out of options.

If the levy doesn’t pass, the fire district would have far fewer resources to respond to calls and do its job effectively. There are currently three NLFD stations in Hayden, Rathdrum and at the Coeur d’Alene Airport, with a fourth being built in Garwood,d expected to be completed in 2027. That station would sit empty should the levy not pass.

“We cover 108 square miles, and reducing the staffing, reducing the amount of stations we have, increases response time tremendously,” Croffoot said. “In fires, medical emergencies, time is of the essence. You take a third of the workforce away, it's pretty easy math to figure out that response times will diminish.”

Losing those 21 members of the line creates a hazard for both firefighters and citizens. The district gets about 7,000 calls a year and may respond to over 50 calls in a 48-hour window.

“When our staffing goes down, the job gets a lot more dangerous.” Aagesen said. “Not just for the people who live in our district, but for us as well. Having a lot of manpower on scenes makes our job significantly safer, as well as making things safer for the public. So, if we see this drop in our staffing, it's going to be more dangerous to live and more dangerous to work here.”

The services the NLFD provides are crucial with the district’s growth over the years. As events such as wildfires grow more prevalent, the resources must be available to combat them. Fires contained to a couple of acres with a full staff could grow much larger, potentially into uncontrolled blazes. The district also responds to calls when an EMT is needed.

“We provide ambulance service and EMS service for our district as well,” Aagesen said. “So we have our fire trucks, we have our ambulances, we do pretty much all of it. The bulk of our job is doing EMS. We get a lot of very sick people, a lot of pretty horrific events. It's going to be slower response times for those calls and maybe some lower capabilities for those calls as well.”

Even if the levy doesn’t pass but funds become available in the future, the district would still have lost integral members.

“They do become family, and we’ve invested a lot of time in training these people to such a high level,” Croffoot said. “If you lose them, you may never get them back. They're going to be highly trained, and they're going to go get jobs in other spots. Maintaining the people we have is paramount.”

The proposed levy would charge property owners $5.99 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value more than they are presently paying, bringing the total after the levy change to $99.26 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value.

“When our last temporary levy passed, we were so grateful to our taxpayers in our district,” Croffoot said. “We feel that support, and we want to continue giving that support.”

    Christian Aagesen tidies up at the Northern Lakes Fire District station in Hayden.