Winston Fire Board members defend their numbers
WINSTON, Ore. -- Members of the committee that is trying to recall three people on the Winston-Dillard Fire District Board of Directors, say the amount of money that the fire department gets from property taxes was understated.
The board members however, say that is not true. They say the district lost thousands of dollars when Roseburg Forest Products saw a major decrease in its appraisal.
One of those on the recall ballot is Stan Keeler, who says much of what the recall committee presented is not accurate. "A lot of the statements are false, a lot are taken out of context, the figures they're using are different than from our state mandated auditor, that we're required by Oregon State Revised Statutes to use," he said.
Keeler says the shortfall from RFP was almost $260,000, and on top of that, another $233,000 was not paid due to the bad economy.
Bruce Justis, who speaks for the recall committee, says they believe their figures are right. "Check with the Douglas County Assessor's office, that's what we did," Justis said. "We received these figures the first of February, and at that time we showed the district had already received $1,431,000 in current year's taxes, and an additional $72,000 in prior years taxes, and that's only for the first six months."
Justis says that historically, the last six months of the fiscal year they have received another $130,000, putting them at about $1.636 million and not $1.4 million.
Lyle Jeffries has only been on the board since July, and he says he just wants what's good for the district. "I really think if they get their facts and figures straight, we'd be OK," he said. "I'm on the board to do the best I can for the district, and I surely don't want to break it up and have it go some place else."
Jeffries says he's adamantly opposed to having the district merge with Fire District #2, which has been discussed.
The recall ballots go out Wednesday, and voters in the district should start receiving them in the mail later this week.
