Evergreen bond ballots due Tuesday

The Daily Inter Lake

The deadline is Tuesday night for people to submit their ballots on a $4.4 million bond request for a new Evergreen fire station.

The Flathead County Election Department must receive signed ballots by mail or in person by 8 p.m. Tuesday for them to count.

Ballots were mailed out Sept. 2 to people in the Evergreen Fire District.

The Evergreen Fire Department wants to overhaul its main station because it is old, cramped and doesn't meet the department's needs.

The proposed new main station - which would be built on the site of the current 51-year-old, 6,500-square-foot fire hall - would be 17,000 square feet.

It would have a bunk room, more training areas and more room for vehicles, plus a community room able to hold 70 people.

If the bond request passes the public vote, a home with an assessed taxable market value of $100,000 would pay $67.99 a year, and a home assessed at $200,000 would pay $135.98 a year. A home assessed at $75,000 would pay $50.99 annually.

The fire department said the 2007 assessed taxable market value of a typical central Evergreen home ranges from $50,000 to $80,000. Homes in Hillcrest and Mission Village usually run from $85,000 to $125,000. North of Rose Crossing, the homes' assessed taxable market values range from $50,000 to $200,000.

Assessed taxable market values are government calculations and are not the private sector's appraised values or sales prices.

If the bond request passes, the construction work likely would take place in 2009.

For more information, call 752-4636 or go to www.evergreenfirerescue.net.