2025 one of the district’s busiest years on record
Thanksgiving came early for Skagit County Fire District 13.
Officials of the local firefighting and emergency medical service, whose coverage area is the Swinomish Reservation and rural La Conner, were thankful last week for overwhelming voter support of the district’s Nov. 4 levy lid lift ballot measure.
By a better than 2-to-1 margin, district voters approved a multi-year levy proposal increasing their fire protection and emergency response property tax rate from $.59 per $1,000 assessed valuation to $1.11 per $1,000 assessed valuation.
The added revenue — estimated at between $17 and $26 monthly from most affected households — will allow the fire district to both maintain and increase its present service levels, including 24/7 response teams. Levy monies will also help replace aging equipment and retain staff amid rising costs, district leaders said.
As of Nov. 20, the vote count in favor of the levy proposal was 1,063, about 68% of ballots tallied. Just over 32% (504) of district voters were opposed.
District 13 Commission Chair Bruce Shellhamer thanked voters for approving the levy hike despite challenging economic conditions.
“I’m very grateful that it passed,” Shellhamer said during the panel’s 45-minute Nov. 21 meeting at the Snee-Oosh Road station. “The word that comes to mind is how humbling it is that it passed at such a high rate.
“I take it as a sacred trust,” Shellhamer said. “I take that very seriously, and we’re committed to be worthy of that trust.”
Shellhamer said he appreciated that voters “would take money out of their pockets” to support the levy, which is still well below the maximum statutory rate of $1.50 per $1,000 assessed valuation.
“We’ll use the (levy) money wisely and effectively for our citizens,” he vowed.
Commissioner John Doyle chimed in as well.
“I’ve always been impressed that we’ve been able to keep the tax level as low as it’s been,” Doyle said. “We’ve had a lower tax rate despite having a high call volume.”
District Fire Chief Wood Weiss told commissioners that his crews responded to 131 service calls in October. He said the district has answered 1,212 calls this year and anticipates that number to approach 1,350 by the end of December.
“This will be one of our biggest years,” he said.
Additionally, District 13 transported 37 patients to area hospitals in October, prompting Weiss to say that it “was maybe our biggest month ever for transports.”
The fire district has thus far provided 283 transports since January.
Weiss further reported that the district’s Florida-built 2025 Pierce Kenworth tender, the balance for which has been paid, is about to receive its vehicle tags. He proposed that a “push-in” ceremony for the new rig be scheduled in either December or January.
The “push-in” will harken back to the days when a fire apparatus was pulled by horses and had to be pushed into service bays. It represents a traditional event symbolizing a firefighting vehicle’s official entry into service.
“We’re going to need a lot of people to do this,” Weiss said. “It can be a behemoth undertaking.”
Capt. Andrew Lester invited district officials to join him at a Dec. 11 Skagit Community Foundation meeting in Mount Vernon. Lester said attendance could be beneficial given that the district has a pending grant application with the foundation for $12,250 to acquire two Starlink units — one to be installed at the Snee-Oosh station and the other to be used as a mobile device.
“I think it’s important for us to make our presence known,” Lester said.
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
