Scotts Valley Fire Board approves fire and life safety investment ballot measure
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. (KION) -- Voters in Scotts Valley will be asked, once again, to vote on a bond measure that would help fund a new fire station in the city.
Scotts Valley Fire is once again asking voters to help them hit the ground running on renovations for the city's Erba Lane fire station.
Board members approved putting the measure on the ballot, which the fire department says would help get the building up to code, something they say is essential for protecting Scotts Valley residents during emergencies.
"There was two evaluations done of the building one in 2018 and the second one in 2020 and one determined the building to be at the end of a useful life not meeting the standards and requirements for modern fire department, as well as it was a question the size safety of the building so they had an engineer come and look at the building and they deemed it seismically, unsafe," Mark Correira Fire Chief of Scotts Valley Fire District said.
The proposed ballot measure will ask voters to fund $24.5 million in bonds and will have an average tax rate of $17 per $100,000 of the taxable assessed valuation, costing the average property owner $109 per year.
The funds would help support the construction Erba Lane station construction and relocate to a new fire station at six thousand La Madrona Drive.
The relocation will aim to optimize emergency response time, medical services, and wildfire prevention efforts across Scotts Valley.
"Moving the station more south would also benefit the district district from the Santa Cruz border all the way north up towards Glenwood, so the fire station closer to our most populated and busiest area," Correira said. "We will be able to get those as well as quick access onto highway 17 will help us get into other parts of the district as well.”
This is now the third attempt at the bond measure to replace this fire station, one as recent as last year failed by 12 votes.
After the measure failed to pass last year, the district to reassessed its strategy and proposed this plan.
