Voters Approving Wenatchee Valley Fire Department

Voters in both Chelan and Douglas County are approving Proposition 1, although by much different margins.

Proposition 1 was put on the ballot by Chelan County Fire District 1 and Douglas County Fire District 2 as a proposal to combine both districts along with increasing their levy rates.

Brian Brett, Fire Chief of both districts, said he was very grateful for the community's trust, compassion and support.

"We will continue to provide a fire department you can be proud of that will compliment the history of both fire districts. The tradition of our fire districts is phenomenal," said Brett.

As it stands Tuesday night, 64% of Chelan County voters are supporting the measure, compared to just 51% in Douglas County. Combined, Proposition 1 has 60% of the vote.

According to state law, only a simple majority of the combined jurisdictions is needed to pass the measure.

"Optically, we would love for Douglas County to approve it at greater than 50 percent as well," continued Brett

If the proposition were to pass, the tax levy for the two districts will be increased to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The rate is currently about $1.31 for Chelan County Fire District 1 and $1.29 for Douglas County Fire District 2.

Proponents of the measure say that combining the districts would allow for improvements within the fire response system while eliminating redundancies. Fire officials have stated that there will likely be several more hires if Proposition 1 is approved.

Proposition 1 could still fail, though. Chelan County still has an estimated 24% of its votes to count, while Douglas County is estimating it has more than half its ballots left. While the 'yea' votes have about a 2,000-vote lead, it's thought there are still over 9,200 ballots yet to be counted between the two counties, including an estimated 5,000 in Douglas County.

More election results from around North Central Washington and the state can be found here.