Measure T asks voters to help fund more firefighters and equipment upgrades in the Zayante Fire Protection District. (Allison Gasparini — Santa Cruz Local file)
ZAYANTE >> Zayante Fire leaders want to bring back more full-time staff and replace aging fire engines with a parcel tax on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Measure T will appear on ballots in Zayante Fire Protection District, which serves about 5,500 people in areas of the Santa Cruz Mountains including Zayante, Lompico and parts of unincorporated Santa Clara County.
The proposed annual tax would be:
- $290 for homes, businesses or land with other structures. An existing parcel tax approved in 2016 is $75 and would expire if Measure T is approved.
- $100 for vacant lots 5 acres or larger.
- $50 for vacant lots smaller than 5 acres.
The district has 25 volunteer firefighters, but it has long depended on paid, daytime firefighters and fire engine drivers to respond when volunteers are at their day jobs.
In 2021, Zayante Fire had three paid staff at the station daily. Now, it has a fire engine driver and a firefighter on “Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, just a driver on Wednesday, nobody on Saturdays and Sundays,” said Zayante Fire Chief Jeff Maxwell. “Schedule your emergency carefully.”
“We have to get back on track, or we’re going to have a fire department with no people and no fire trucks,” he said.
Some opposition has formed against Measure T. Lompico resident Jennifer Gómez said the tax proposal avoids the larger problem in the San Lorenzo Valley — that fire departments in rural areas with small populations aren’t financially sustainable. Fire protection districts in Zayante, Ben Lomond, Felton and Boulder Creek should consider reorganizing or combining their districts, she said.
“We’re going to either need to consolidate or we’re all going to end up paying more, and there’s going to be more and more [tax] measures, it’s going to become more costly, and we’re going to be getting less services,” Gómez said.
In 2023, money problems led Branciforte Fire Protection District to be annexed by Scotts Valley Protection District.
Maxwell said a consolidated San Lorenzo Valley fire district would not necessarily be more financially sustainable, and it could deprioritize service to Zayante and Lompico in favor of more populated areas such as Felton and Ben Lomond.
The Zayante district is “nine miles from end to end, and time matters,” Maxwell said. “Our three stations provide great service. We’re the only ones in the valley that actually put substations into communities where the population concentrations are and reduce response times.”
Read more about Measure T in Santa Cruz Local’s Election Guide.
More information about Measure T
- Measure T official text, ballot arguments and impartial analysis
- Measure T resolution
- Zayante Fire Protection District website
Read about other races and measures in the Santa Cruz Mountains
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Jesse Kathan is a staff reporter for Santa Cruz Local through the California Local News Fellowship. They hold a master's degree in science communications from UC Santa Cruz.
