Crooked River Ranch Fire & Rescue provides emergency response services to the approximately 5,500 residents and many visitors of the 16.4 square mile Crooked River Ranch community. The District responded to over 600 calls in 2022.

Crooked River Ranch Fire & Rescue provides emergency response in its service area including fire suppression, fire prevention, technical rope rescue, and basic and advanced life support ambulance service including transport. It is staffed by six career personnel and twenty-one volunteers that range from firefighters to paramedics, and EMTs.  Some personnel are also cross trained as firefighter/paramedics or firefighter/EMTs.

Click here for more information on services.

The District is funded primarily by property taxes, including an existing local option levy of $0.89 per $1,000 of assessed value that will expire June 30, 2024. In addition, the District receives revenue from ambulance billing. If approved, the new five-year local option levy would supplement the permanent tax base.

The new local option levy would replace the expiring one and increase it by $0.28 to $1.17 per $1,000 of assessed value.

For more information on our tax rates click here.

As the District’s population continues to grow, Crooked River Ranch Fire & Rescue will not be able to keep up with the increased demand for emergency services. As our community grows, so does the demand on our staff and equipment.  As emergecny call volume increases, so does the need for more firefighter/paramedics to respond.  Particularly in the event of simultaneous or overlapping calls where we have to rely heavily on our team of volunteer staff to ensure a response. 

Crooked River Ranch Fire & Rescue has an aging fleet of aparatus that serves our current community. As our community grows and time passes, the reliability and capability of our aging fleet will decline.  An aging fleet of aparatrus leads to a higher average maintenance cost in addition to more shop time and less time in service to the community.  As technology evolves and becomes more available; it is important that we seize the opportunity to keep our apparatus and equipment up to date so that we can do our job as quickly, efficiently, and effectively as possible.  Especially with our limited number of available staff both volunteer and career. 

Funds would be used to improve the District’s current level of response to fire and medical emergencies, including those requiring ambulance transport. Population growth and an aging population have contributed to a 36% increase in total call volume over the last 10 years and a 66% increase in emergency medical calls over the last 10 years. Passage would help ensure continued response to each emergency with fully trained firefighter/paramedics at all hours of the day and night.

If approved, the levy would:

• Allow the District to maintain two grant funded firefighter/paramedics and add a third firefighter/paramedic, bringing each of the three shifts to two career firefighter/paramedics. These additional firefighter/paramedics will ensure the District has the flexibility to respond to the increasing number of emergency medical service calls and meet national standards on minimum staffing for structure fires.
• Support the increasing demand for response to wildland and structure fires.
• Help the District cover the increasing costs of providing emergency services.
• Help the District save for future capital equipment replacement costs.

The new levy would be at a fixed rate of $1.17 per $1,000 of assessed value (assessed value is different than market value). This new levy rate is a $0.28 increase over the expiring levy. For example: a property with an assessed value of $200,000 the cost increase over the expiring levy is $56.00 per year or about $4.66 per month. The total cost of the new levy for a property assessed at $200,000 would be $234.00 a year or $19.50 per month.

Here are the steps to calculate what you will pay under the new levy:

Step 1:  Find your home's taxable assessed value (different than the market value). 

Step 2: Take your home's taxable assessed value and divide it  by 1,000. 

Step 3: Take your value from step 2 and multiply it by $1.17.  The result will be your annual cost with the new levy.

To find your cost per month under the new levy, take the value from Step 3 and divide it by 12.  The result will be your monthly cost with the new levy.