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Aspen Fire Asks Voters For Funds For Housing, Wildfire Emergencies

www.aspenfire.org

The Aspen Fire Protection District is asking voters to approve an increase in property taxes that would fund firefighter housing, capital improvements and more.

 

Ballot Issue 6A would bring in $3.3 million per year in taxes for Aspen Fire. About 40 percent would go to building firefighter housing on land the district owns near its North 40 station. The all-volunteer department requires that firefighters live in the district.

The remainder would be used to create a disaster fund in case of a large wildfire, and for volunteer benefits and new equipment.

Chief Rick Ballentine said the measure also addresses an automatic funding decrease resulting from Colorado’s Gallagher Amendment; in 2019, Aspen Fire expects to lose about 10 percent of its funding because of an adjustment to the residential assessment rate.

 

The housing portion of the tax would sunset after 20 years.

 

Aspen native Elizabeth Stewart-Severy is excited to be making a return to both the Red Brick, where she attended kindergarten, and the field of journalism. She has spent her entire life playing in the mountains and rivers around Aspen, and is thrilled to be reporting about all things environmental in this special place. She attended the University of Colorado with a Boettcher Scholarship, and graduated as the top student from the School of Journalism in 2006. Her lifelong love of hockey lead to a stint working for the Colorado Avalanche, and she still plays in local leagues and coaches the Aspen Junior Hockey U-19 girls.
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