Mill levy increase for Eureka dispatch headed before voters on November ballot

Officials will ask voters in north Lincoln County to approve a four-mills levy increase for the Eureka Area Dispatch District this fall.

The district already receives 11 mills. The four mills bump is expected to raise an additional $65,892 for the organization each year.

Were the levy to meet with voter approval, the mills would add $5.40 to the property tax for a home valued at about $100,000 and about $10.80 for a home valued at $200,000.

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners approved adding the question to the November ballot on Aug. 5. Outside of a wording issue — officials inadvertently referred to an “aquatic facility” in several instances on the resolution — the proposal met with overwhelming support.

“Tony [Petrusha] would be ecstatic,” joked County Commissioner Jerry Bennett (D-2), in a reference to a stalled grassroots effort to build a pool facility in Libby.

Commissioners ultimately voted unanimously to put the measure on the ballot.

A public hearing on the proposition held in Eureka on July 27 was sparsely attended, according to the Tobacco Valley News.

Organization leaders told reporter Krista Nemeroff that the dispatch traditionally augments the 11 mills it already receives with donations, interest on savings, fees paid by the U.S. Forest Service and a $1 charge on phone bills for 911 services.

In the past, the organization received roughly $26,000 in entitlement funding from the county, but that ended several fiscal calendars ago.

“We’ve never taxed more than the 11 mills to set our budget, and we got by, but we just can’t do that anymore without the extra help from the county,” Donna Lowery, vice president of the organization, told the Tobacco Valley News.