Salida Fire District faces significant challenges after Measure J fails
Voters’ rejection of Measure J on Election Day early this month leaves the future of the Salida Fire Protection District in jeopardy. Rising costs have made keeping the district unsustainable by 2027, officials say.
Salida Fire District board member Mark Stone was disappointed with the results and suggested voter apathy was to blame for the poor turnout. Only 3,966 people voted on the measure out of 11,334 registered voters, according to the Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters.
Stone expressed concern for keeping stations operational and providing service to residents. “The district does not have the funding to be able to afford Station 12, which is over a million dollars a year,” he said. “We’ve been spending ($700,000 to $900,000) out of our reserves since the contract started. To keep this up, we basically have revenue coming in from every possible source we can generate, but our options are really slim.”
The Modesto Fire Department has been servicing the district with fire response since September 2022, and the contract ends at the end of next year.
The fire board called a meeting after the June 3 vote and formed an ad hoc committee to work toward a solution. Stone said the committee will meet once a week and has already met with the Modesto Fire Department to work on ways to keep Station 12 funded.
The Measure J tax would have generated $1.9 million, charging residents $126 for a multifamily home or $168 for a single-family home annually.
Heavy commercial buildings would have been taxed at 20 cents per square foot, light industrial buildings at 10 cents per square foot, and storage facilities at 5 cents per square foot. Vacant properties would have been exempt.
If the financial burden on Station 12 is too great, Stone said, Salida Fire would be forced to close that station and shift coverage to Stations 4, 6, and 11, which would greatly impact response times.
“Right now, we have about a five- to five-and-a-half-minute response time, districtwide,” Stone said. He said that closing Station 12 would push response time closer to 10 minutes in some service areas.
Another option would be to annex the Salida Fire to the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District, which covers a large area north and east of Modesto that includes Riverbank, Empire, Waterford, Hickman and La Grange.
Stone said the coverage overlay would benefit Salida but eliminate the community fire district, formed in 1942. In addition, the costs would still be an issue. “Consolidated Fire was going to be considerably more a year, it is almost double what we were asking for to be able to do it,” Stone said.
Stone said response times would remain about the same as now, but residents would pay more than the requested tax increase if Stanislaus Consolidated took over service. “The people that did want to vote to increase their taxes now, that will automatically get overlaid through a LAFCO process, they’ll just pay more for the same protection they’re getting,” he said.
Stone said Salida Fire’s preference would be to keep the district as is and find ways to better work with Modesto Fire. Annexation would be the last resort.
At this time, the fire protection district remains operational, and Stone said perhaps more solutions will come out of its meetings, but protecting Salida residents is crucial. “We are about service to the people, because we understand what it does. We’re looking to try to deliver the best service we can.”
