As chief of the Lebanon Fire District, Joseph Rodondi is used to doing more with less.
However, he said, with both needs and prices continuing to grow, in recent years he is having to accept the district will be doing less with less.
The Lebanon Fire District is facing a revenue shortfall of $860,000 this coming fiscal year, which starts July 1. To make up the difference, the district is cutting positions, reducing overtime, consolidating operations – and eliminating some programs.
One of those eliminations is this summer’s annual Linn County Young Women’s Fire Academy.
“It is a wonderful program, and we have had great success helping young ladies gain some experience and get some enlightenment on a position they may not have considered,” Rodondi said.
“I can’t guarantee that it will come back,” he added. “However, we’re working on things. We have partners in Linn County. Hopefully we can cost-share, make it a more reasonable approach.”
The fire academy began in 2018. Geared toward young women ages 14 to 19, the two-day camp taught basic firefighting: everything from handling hoses to practicing forced entries to climbing the 108-foot aerial ladder.
The idea was to help participants develop leadership skills while giving hands-on experience with a job they may never have considered before. And it worked: Lt. Erin Nunes, who organizes the academy, said the camp has had at least eight young women go on to become volunteers or interns with Lebanon or with other departments, including two alumni who have been hired by the Lebanon district.
The camp began with 20 young women, but had a record 35 last year, Nunes said. The team was hoping for 40 this summer, but hadn’t yet begun taking applications when word of the cancellation came.
“Recruitment for fire department positions has proved increasingly difficult. Unfortunately, cutting this program could limit opportunities for the next generation of female firefighters,” Nunes said by text message. “We hope to get this fantastic program back next year through creative fundraising and partnerships with surrounding agencies.”
Budget constraints mean the district is having to get creative in many ways, Rodondi said.
Although Albany, Salem and Halsey-Shedd fire agencies helped support the academy, the Lebanon district paid $15,000 in employee and overtime costs as the host.
The savings isn’t enough, he acknowledged, but at this point, everything had to be considered.
Funding a fire district
Fire districts are not funded by cities, Rodondi explained, nor are they associated with state or county governments. Instead, they receive a portion of property taxes earmarked specifically for the district, and they are limited in their ability to raise additional revenue.
Lebanon’s fire district is 134 square miles and covers about 32,000 people. Most of them live within the Lebanon city limits.
The fire district provides fire protection. The ambulance service district is bigger – 434 square miles, and it includes Scio and Brownsville – but those areas do not provide tax support. Instead, they provide “fee-based recovery,” Rodondi said.
“A lot of people believe their property taxes cover ambulances, but really it’s only fire,” he said.
That’s part of the fire district’s fiscal challenge, because while it receives Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement for ambulance service costs, the total reimbursement is capped by the federal government. Whatever costs remain are up to the district to cover.
“I, on average, bill $9 million per year in ambulance services and I get about $3 million back. It doesn’t cover the service,” Rondondi said. “Eighty percent of the populace that we serve falls under Medicare or Medicaid. That really stretches our ability to provide services.”
In May 2024, Lebanon voters overwhelmingly rejected a levy request to add 75 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value within the district. Rodondi said that income would have helped the fire district continue to hire and to provide competitive wages, and to combat skyrocketing equipment costs.
Rodondi has worked in firefighting since 1985. For a long time, he said, budgeting could be done by anticipating an increase of 3% to 5% in equipment costs per year.
Then came the worldwide COVID pandemic, which shut down many industries, caused shortages in others and generally threw global markets into turmoil. Prices soared to 17% to 20%, something that has been consistent since 2020, Rodondi said, and districts have struggled with backlogs and delivery delays.
That means engines that used to cost $500,000 now cost $1 million or more.
“We can’t keep up with that – it’s a significant challenge,” Rodondi said. “So we’re buying refurbished, not new.”
Extra COVID funding, which helped some agencies, wasn’t available to the district, he added. “We’re not recognized in the federal code as an agency for certain pass-through federal dollars.”
Rondondi said people often ask why additional housing development in Lebanon isn’t bringing in more money. It is, the chief said – just not enough.
Take a single home with an assessed value of $300,000, for instance. At $2.26 per $1,000 or assessed value, which is what the district currently receives, more than 1,200 homes would have to be built to cover a shortfall of $860,000.
But in 2024, the district had just 920 homes proposed – and not all of them are built yet. And in the meantime, the workload continues to increase.
“When you do the math,” Rodondi said, “the math does not pan out.”
Growing need
Census records show continual growth in Lebanon. In 2010, the population stood at about 15,500. By the time Rodondi joined the district in 2019, it was more than 18,000, and by last year it was close to 20,000 – and that’s just in the city itself.
More people means more calls for service. In 2012, Lebanon recorded 4,657 calls, Rodondi said. For 2024, it was 6,745.
The type of calls also has changed, he noted. The district used to get about two calls for Narcan per year. Now, he said, requests for the over-the-counter drug, which can reverse an opioid overdose, sometimes come twice a day.
“The strain of buying Narcan is real,” Rodondi said. “We get some through the Oregon Health Authority, but we have exceeded our allotment, and we pay for that out of pocket.”
Finding savings
Rodondi presented his budget reduction strategy to the Lebanon Fire District Board of Directors on Feb. 11.
Positions have been left vacant each year since 2021, the report states, and 7.5 full-time-equivalent positions have been eliminated, some through attrition.
This current fiscal year saw the removal of a half-time fire inspector and a full-time ambulance biller. The coming fiscal year will see the reduction of nine positions, all but 1.5 through attrition.
Among those cuts are the elimination of a recruitment and retention lieutenant, and four emergency services personnel – two positions that won’t be filled and two that will sunset in January. The district also is reducing its six-person student volunteer program to three.
Lebanon will reduce its overtime, and consolidate some of its software and maintenance contracts. In February the district adopted a new fee schedule for everything from giving inspection permits to fulfilling public records requests. According to the report, the new fees may generate another $300,000 in revenue.
The district may choose to pursue another levy, according to the report, in spite of the failure in May. However, Rodondi said, “I can completely understand the voters’ (response) with constant taxation.”
The outlook
As the district continues to “do less with less,” Rodondi said, it will be looking at a tiered response system. This means instead of a “first come, first served” approach, LFD will be looking at which vehicles respond to calls, which “low-acuity” calls may be delayed, and which calls – including odor investigations, or requests for mutual aid – may not receive a response at all.
Sweet Home’s mutual aid, for instance, responded to 30 calls compared to 180 responses to them from Lebanon, according to the report. “We cannot supplant staffing of other agencies,” the report states.
As for the Linn County Young Women’s Fire Academy, other camps are still available. Nunes said fire camps are happening this summer in Bend and Eugene and are currently accepting applications.
Rodondi said he wishes more options were available.
“We understand the impact to the community, and the disappointment,” he said. “But we are looking to make sure we have the ability to respond to calls, and to look for creative ways to increase revenue.