PASCO, Wash. - Franklin County Fire District Three's contract with the City of Pasco expires at the end of December. The roughly 7,500 people living in the district could lose those services and now many of them are speaking out.
Chief Les Litzenberger said there was quite a turnout to Wednesday's community meeting. Even though voters rejected an EMS levy last month that would have eliminated the issue a lot of people in the district did have some input.
The top two options are getting help from Franklin County Commissioners through the creation of an EMS district or attempting another EMS levy.
Litzenberger believes there may have been some confusion about the failed levy and wants to set up an advisory committee to better explain it the second time around.
"Currently we're hoping to establish a contract for 2013 so we can land on a funding source and then those are directions we have to decide on later in 2013," Litzenberger said.
The Fire District is currently paying about $30,000 a year for their contract that ends on December 31st. The City is now asking for almost twice that much for services in 2013 and more than five times that much in 2014.
Litzenberger is hoping to get the current contract extended for at least one more year. A decision on that is expected by sometime next week.
