MILTON-FREEWATER — Voters in three rural Oregon fire departments and an ambulance district, which formed a single agency through an intergovernmental agreement last year, will decide Tuesday whether they now support merging the four into one.

If three measures — 30-142, 30-143 and 30-144 — on the primary election ballot pass, it could change residents’ taxes for emergency services.

The potential tax change depends on where residents live since some are already levied the maximum allowed by state law. It also likely would maintain at least the current level of service.

The first two measures dissolve the East Umatilla County Rural Fire Protection District and Helix Rural Fire Protection District, respectively. The third creates the East Umatilla Fire & Rescue District.

If any one of the measures fails to pass, the three entities will remain separate.

East Umatilla County Rural Fire Protection District, East Umatilla County Ambulance Area Health District, Athena Volunteer Fire Department, and Helix Rural Fire Protection District have been responding, training and managing as one district since July 1, 2019, said Chief Dave Baty of the East Umatilla County Rural Fire Protection District.

“Since then, it’s (the intergovernmental agreement) gone really, really well,” he said in an earlier interview. “There are several advantages” for merging.

Those include savings on auditing, time spent on three sets of financial records and having a “level playing field” on residents’ taxes, he said.

Helix Rural Fire Protection District covers 188 square miles, and residents paid 43 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value for fire protection, Baty said, while Athena residents were covered by the city’s $30,000 annual donation.

Additionally, he said the East Umatilla district, which covers 240 square miles, was paid for by residents’ $1 per $1,000 assessed property value.

The ambulance district, which covered the fire agencies plus some, already has been covered by $1 per $1,000 on assessed value, Baty said.

The proposed tax rate for all districts would be $1 per $1,000 assessed valuation for fire service, besides their current $1 per $1,000 for ambulance service, bringing in at least an additional $120,000 for the joint district, as well as its thousands of dollars in grants. The estimated annual revenue would be $413,000, Baty said.

The East Umatilla district received about $83,000 in grants last year, he said, as well as the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (through the Federal Emergency Management Agency) for a new, $325,000 water tender, which will arrive in July.

“I think we can do a pretty good job with that,” Baty said. “We’re not doing it for an increase in funds. … We can raise the level of service.”

Currently, volunteers from all three agencies respond to emergencies as their obligations allow them to any area within the intergovernmental agreement.

In the Umatilla County Voter’s Pamphlet, Baty said a majority “no” vote on any part of the measure would return fire district service to pre-2017 levels.

It would also end a number of services shared over the three areas, including compliance with oversight organizations, dedicated overhead staff with career experience to provide incident command, safety, training, budgeting, building/vehicle maintenance, grant writing and billing, one-, three- and five-year organizational plans, and other vital services, according to the explanation.