LOOKINGGLASS — The Lookingglass Rural Fire District plans to dissolve and be replaced by a new fire district.

The new district? The Lookingglass Rural Fire District.

Fire district officials figure the only way around a 1997 voter-approved constitutional amendment that locks in the district's tax rate at 51 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value is to disband the district and form a new one.

The fire district, which last year responded to 110 fire and medical calls, is working to get a measure on the May 15 ballot. Besides forming a new district, voters will be asked to approve a tax rate of $1.55 per $1,000, the same rate residents paid for six years under a voter-approved levy that expired at the end of June.

The current tax rate —approved when the district was formed in the late 1970s and which provides the district about $57,000 a year — is inadequate to meet the needs of the fire district, 22-year fire Chief Gary Hermes and fire district board member Dennis Sifford told Douglas County commissioners during a hearing last week.

“That's just to keep the doors open, pay the insurance and keep the lights on,” Sifford said. “That does not provide any funds for emergencies that the district may experience or any replacement of vehicles or equipment.”

When voters approved Measure 50 in 1997, a constitutional amendment made the property tax rates set by municipal governments and other taxing districts permanent. Previously, taxing districts raised their tax rate through voter approval.

The dissolution of a rural fire district and formation of a new district with a higher tax rate is not without precedent in Oregon. The Mosier Rural Fire District east of Hood River and the Nehalem Bay Fire and Rescue District along the north coast reorganized using the same method, said Ken Jones, a Eugene attorney who represents the Lookingglass fire district and who assisted those two districts.

The district, which covers 25 square miles and relies on volunteer firefighters, needs about $85,000 a year to operate, Hermes and Sifford said. The remainder of the $170,000 that would be raised by the higher tax rate would be set aside to buy equipment and for reserves, the same use as the money received through the levy.

“With those funds and some grant funds, we've completed upgrading and replacing our entire fleet,” Sifford said.

The levy added $1.04 per $1,000 of assessed value to property tax bills and raised $113,000 per year.

Hermes and Sifford are confident the reformation vote will win support of fire district residents.

Both the initial five-year levy and a one-year extension passed overwhelmingly. The five-year levy, approved in 2005, received 78 percent of the vote, while the 2010 extension was favored by 70 percent of voters.

Based on community meetings and by going door-to-door to collect signatures for the reformation petition, Hermes and Sifford said they believe people are satisfied with the proposal and will support it.

“The reformation and the new tax rate will allow the district to continue to provide services for the Lookingglass community. It will provide the board of directors a stable funding source for the future to do planning and vehicle replacement and to keep the department operating,” Sifford said.

A second hearing before county commissioners on the Lookingglass proposal will be held Feb. 29. The commissioners will decide then whether to forward the measure to voters.

• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 541-957-4209 or by email at jsowell@nrtoday.com.