Union fire station annexation up for vote May 21
By Garrett Christensen on Monday, March 4th, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
UNION – Another spring season, another counterintuitive bureaucratic quirk. The city of Union recently announced that the proposed annexation of the City Fire and EMS service into the Union Rural Fire Protection District will be up for vote on May 21, 2024.
For those unfamiliar with the situation, the City of Union has been attempting a merger/annexation of the City Fire and EMS Service with the Rural fire protection district for some time. Despite the two services technically being distinct entities with their own fire chiefs, both share the same fire station, crews and much of the same equipment. This unique situation has continued to cause issues when deciding which service has jurisdiction over which emergencies along with distributing equipment and funding.
Ballot measure 31-118 attempted to merge the stations back in November 2023 but failed due to a lack of voter turnout despite the majority of votes being yes. Again, a new vote will be on the ballot for May 21, 2024, to annex the city service into the rural service.
