City of Union Fire Station Merger Fails from Lack of Voter Turnout
By Garrett Christensen on Tuesday, September 5th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
UNION – The Union County Clerk’s Office has officially confirmed that Ballot Measure 31-118 has failed to pass due to not meeting minimum voter turnout requirements, keeping the two Union fire stations separate for the time being.
For those unfamiliar with the situation, Measure 31-118 proposed the annexation of the City of Union Fire and EMS services into the Union Rural Fire Protection District. Currently, the two services are legally distinct entities despite operating out of the same fire station and sharing most of the same firefighters and equipment. This bureaucratic quirk has caused ongoing issues with jurisdiction and dispatching as both stations operate independently and with their own chiefs despite minimal, if any, physical differentiation.
While Measure 31-118 was years in the making, the merger will have to wait even longer due to insufficient voter turnout. According to the Union County Clerk’s Office, the measure’s status as a special election under Oregon law mandated a 50 percent minimum voter turnout. As of September 1, only 33.31% of eligible voters actually participated, killing the measure despite a roughly 70% yes vote from those that did participate.
