How much is your safety worth? Lyon County fire asks for taxpayer's help on Question 1 Ballot Measure

Is the safety of your family or your home worth less than $15 a month? That’s the question Assistant Fire Chief Ryan McIntosh asks residents to think about as they head to the polls during the next few weeks.

“If no one contributes to their community — you have no community.”

Twenty years ago, there were only two full-time firefighters employed with the Central Lyon County Fire Protection District, covering over 640 square miles of land, along with just shy of 100 volunteer firefighters.

Since that time, the population of Lyon County has exploded, from only 35,000 people in 2000 to 61,000 in 2021, much of which as been felt in Central Lyon County.

Despite the increase in the population, though, Central Lyon County Fire employs only 6 full time firefighters, and volunteer participation has dropped down to less than 30.

Only two fire stations are staffed 24/7 to cover the 640 miles of Central Lyon County,

While the reasoning behind a drop in volunteerism is complicated, the reason behind a lack of employed staff is simple: money.

The district’s name is a bit of misnomer; while Lyon County Central Fire covers Lyon County, it is not actually a government entity, and Lyon County proper does not fund the fire service that provides life-saving help to seven communities.

The district applies for multiple grants a year to help pay for their employees, purchase equipment, and bring utilities to the fire stations across the county, but the district’s major funding comes from the tax rate established in 1971 — which has not been updated since.

With a 2005 Nevada Assembly Bill passed to provide a partial tax abatement to property owners, the district’s budget has been further depleted, and is still being felt even now — in fiscal year 2021-2022, 43 percent of the district’s potential budget was eliminated.

A lack of staffing is directly hurting Lyon County residents, according to McIntosh. While the average nationwide response time for emergencies is 10 minutes, in Central Lyon County, response time can stretch over 30 minutes.

“Our average response time is high — 17 minutes, upwards of 20,” McIntosh said. “There’s an old saying that fire doubles in size every minute. We have fatal fires. Every day, we see people who die of medial emergencies. Time matters to a brain starving for oxygen or a heart that has an occluded vessel.”

How can response times decrease? That’s where Question 1 comes in.

Question 1 would authorize the number of full time fire stations from two to four by changing current staffing to career firefighter-paramedics at the Silver Springs Station as well as the Dayton Valley Road Station.

“[First responders] could get to an emergency much faster — our goal is 80 percent of the time to be able to handle a 911 call within 10 minutes or less,” McIntosh said.

According to McIntosh, the cost to the median tax payer in the district is only around $180 a year - less than $15 a month.

“It’s a risk assessment,” McIntosh said. “You have to ask yourself, what is your acceptable amount of risk that you’re willing to take for $15 a month? Is it your family dying, is it your house burning down, is it your cat being saved — and 50 percent of people will pay even less.”

McIntosh fears that without the new firefighter-paramedics able to service the area, and with the continued growth Lyon County has continued to see, the gap between what is needed and what can be offered will only further to widen.

“The tax payer is the only one that can help at this point,” McIntosh said. “In the Emergency Management World we call it the ‘Whole Community Concept.’ It takes everyone that lives in a geographic area to contribute. That’s what makes a community. Otherwise it’s just people who live somewhere — the community is the social circle that brings people together and makes a community sustainable and resilient.”

If approved by voters, Question 1 would levy property tax of $0.23 per $100 of assessed property valuation upon all property owners within CLCFPD boundaries for up to 30 years.

The measure would add an estimated $80.50 per year in taxes for the owner of a new home with a county assessor's taxable value of $100,000.

Essentially, that means that for a home with a taxable value of $100,000 (which is different from the market value), the homeowner would pay only $6.71 per month.

The average assessed home value across the district is lower, at just over $80,000.

“The most expensive home we have been able to find is a brand new constructed, 5,000 square foot home in the bluffs across the river in Dayton, and even that was less than $500 a year — $41 a month,” McIntosh said.

Central Lyon taxes are the lowest in Lyon County, and many other jurisdictions in Nevada, said McIntosh, but the district has 30,000 people with increasing needs and demands for service, especially first response services.

The taxes would only be used for more firefighters — none would go to purchasing vehicles or building new fire stations.

“Some people are concerned about that,” McIntosh said. “There is a lot of misinformation out there about this question, and we want to set the record straight.”

McIntosh cited the recent burning of the Fox Hotel in Dayton as an example of a need for increased response times. The fire quickly spread to two other historic buildings, all of which suffered significant damage. The district does not own a ladder truck, and had to rely on Carson City to respond with theirs to assist.

“We only had seven total (Lyon) firefighters on scene trying to put out a massive fire at three large historic buildings until Carson City could arrive to help us,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh says that Question 1 isn’t only for the firefighters, but for the community as a whole.

“Our slogan is: Help us help you,” McIntosh said. “It’s in the hands of the voters now.”