It will likely be another month or two before the Higgins Area Fire Protection District decides whether to try, for a fourth time, to pass an assessment increase. The last ballot measure, in 2015, was about six-points shy of the necessary two-thirds approval needed from property owners. That resulted in the district eventually closing its third station, on Dog Bar Road, in 2017, after FEMA grant money ran out. But since that time, Chief Jerry Good says wildfires have continued to intensify…

Good also reminds us that reopening the station would not only speed up response times to fires but also medical calls…

Good says it would cost about a-million dollars a year to keep a third station running 24 hours a day. How much an acceptable increase should be is still being determined. In 2015, the proposal was to increase the assessment from 25 dollars a year to 141 dollars a year. The earliest another proposal would be placed on ballot would be either the March or November 2020 elections.