Lakeside Rural Fire Protection District has expansion on its mind. But a few Lakeside-area citizens in the district’s proposed addition to the district aren’t pleased.

Fire Chief Ted Ross said the district has responded more frequently to fire and emergency calls outside its district boundaries in recent years. Many of the calls are to homes bordering Tenmile Lakes. Keeping up that service is stretching the district’s financial resources.

“In the past number of years, there is an increasing need for service on the lake.” Ross said. “We offer that free of charge.”

Attorney David Koch, representing the district, said the Lakeside firefighters respond to these calls in accordance with mutual aid agreements with other fire districts.

Ross said either the district needs more money or it should stop responding to those calls. The current tax revenue collected by the district is $102,400. Another $62,000 in revenue would be collected if the proposed additional territory were added to the district.

“This is something that has been needed for a long time,” he said. “If we don’t have help, we will have to stop providing service.”

A recent hearing before the Coos County commissioners examined the boundaries of the proposal, which would double the district’s territory. Currently the district collects taxes from properties in a five-square-mile area, including the city of Lakeside. The proposed addition would increase that  territory to 10 square miles.

“All we are asking is that you put this on the ballot and let the voters decide and not allow people passionate enough to show up at a public hearing to be the voice,” Koch said.

Testimony at an earlier hearing did affect the size of the  proposed territory. The original proposal would have added 14 square miles, for a total of 19. Testimony in that hearing identified areas, predominantly forest and farm land, that would be difficult for firefighters to access and therefore inappropriate for inclusion in the district.

“I think the people deserve the right to vote,” Coos County Commissioner Nikki Whitty said. “I think the district has a lot of work ahead of it.”

Expanding the district would require an election in the current fire district and the proposed addition. The commissioners will need to approve the ballot title before it appears before voters. A ballot title hearing is scheduled for Aug. 20.

Commissioners John Griffith and Kevin Stufflebean voted along with Whitty to approve the district borders, but the board’s approval of the boundaries will not be the end of the debate.

People who live in the current district and the additional territory have varying opinions on the proposal.

“Nothing shakes you like looking out your window and seeing a pillar of fire going up a tree,” said Carl George, who owns property outside the district.

He and his neighbors got a taste of life without fire protection when a tree caught fire near his house on the Lindros arm of Tenmile Lakes. Emergency responders didn’t have the right address, and no one arrived to help the neighbors. They eventually put out the blaze without it spreading any structures.

George was in favor of expanding the district.

Jim McCarty, another lake property owner, had a different opinion.

“Most of us on the lake knew we weren’t in a fire district,” McCarty said. “We were prepared to deal with that.”

McCarty said he and his neighbors were aware of the risks involved in living outside a fire protection district.

“We are resigned that if our houses catch fire and become involved — they’re history,” he said.

Moreover, McCarty said the expansion brought up more questions than answers. He said the district hasn’t presented much of a plan for how it would cover the extra territory and how expansion would affect residents in the current district.

“I believe Lakeside Fire does a fabulous job, but we are putting the cart before the horse without a plan,” McCarty said.

Ross said the fire protection district is establishing automatic aid agreements that guarantee more responders to fires and emergency calls in the area.

“It’s not that we are looking at things like we are all alone, because that is not the way it is in firefighters anymore,” he said.

(Staff Writer Jolene Guzman can be reached by calling 269-1222, ext. 235; or by e-mailing to jguzman@theworldlink.com.)