Fire district voters nix expansion

HOPE — The Sam Owen fire district will not expand its borders to small chunks of adjoining rural drainages, voters decided.

The district, which covers approximately four square miles, failed recently in its bid to annex an area that included 67 homes without fire protection.

Voters by a 45-38 margin cast ballots against the measure this week.

“I was disappointed,” Bob Wathen, chief of the Sam Owen district said. “I felt like it was going to happen.”

The district, which serves the peninsula and residents along Highway 200 east of East Hope, wanted to annex portions of Spring Creek and O’Neil Mountain where some homeowners already contract the department for fire protection.

Contracts allow homeowners a lower fire rating, which in turn results in a lower insurance rate.

Annexation would require all district residents pay the $1.27 per thousand mil rate.

Wathen said the measure likely failed because many residents in the proposed annexation did not want the additional tax burden, and many do not have fire insurance, so the incentive was moot.

Another reason to vote against annexation is the steep terrain.

The annexation would have included mountainsides that are difficult to access in winter weather.

“West Spring Creek Road is a pretty steep road, but it’s not impassable to us,” the chief said. “We have four-wheel-drive and rugged chains on every vehicle.”

Opponents use the terrain as reason to stay out of the district, but Sam Owen’s vehicles can get there even in bad weather, to fight fires at places under contract or wildfires, he said.

“We’ve never been held up yet,” he said.

In addition, because of the many residents in the proposed annexation who contract for fire protection with Sam Owen, and because the district is under contract to fight wildland fires by the Idaho Department of Lands, the district’s two engines and its tender show up at every fire, if only to determine if they are allowed to quench it.

“What happens is, we have half the residences up there (under contract), so if there’s a fire, we have to go,” Wathen said.

The ones that are not under contract feel the department will always show up for a blaze.

“Their feeling is, no matter if I pay or not, you guys are going to come,” Wathen said.

Because of its own insurance policies, the district cannot fight fires out of district or without a contract.

“We may have to watch their house burn because we do not have a contract,” he said. “It’s a tough call asking volunteers to make that decision.”

District commissioners will attempt another annexation vote if they feel residents want them to try again.

“We will try that again,” he said.

In the meantime, the department is in the process of annexing portions of rural Trestle Creek that are being dropped by the Hope district. The measure could be on the ballot as soon as November.