Alfalfa voters on Tuesday created a new rural fire protection district for the previously unprotected area.

Both Deschutes and Crook county clerks showed voters favoring a permanent taxing district by a wide margin.

The measure proposes a tax rate of up to $1.75 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The new district will officially form in May. Alfalfa residents will begin paying the tax in July, and the district will begin collecting revenue in November.

Deschutes County Commission Chairman Alan Unger said creating the district is the first step in the process of addressing fire protection and growing the department with help from neighboring agencies.

“It takes the support of all the people in the district to say they’re willing to pay more taxes for fire protection,” he said. “On the other hand, they will see their insurance rates go down once the district is created.”

David Warren, of Alfalfa, worked for more than a year to organize the movement and gather the signatures needed to petition the commission to get the measure on the ballot.

“I’m very confident that we will win based on the overwhelming amount of support we got during the petition process,” he said earlier Tuesday. “We’ve been campaigning as much as we were able and sent out a mailing that really outlined the reasons as objectively as possible.”

Warren said creating a new district made sense because no agency is assigned to protect structures in the area. He said he has seen buildings burn to the ground due to the lack of firefighter response.

“We also really tried to clarify the tax issue because we were finding that farmers and ranchers thought they would be taxed on the value of their entire property,” Warren said. “In reality, they’re only taxed on the improvements — basically the house, garage or other buildings. So some people in the subdivision will pay more taxes than people with property because their homes are newer and bigger.”

The next step is to begin raising money to acquire equipment, fund training and build a fire station.

“The board of directors will meet soon to begin the process of looking for a chief,” Warren said. “We have a lady who has volunteered to write the grants so we can apply for federal and state grant money.”

Warren is one of five Alfalfa residents elected Tuesday to serve on the board of directors. The others are Robert Kathman, Carolyn Chase, Rowan Hollitz and Gary Hughes.

Warren said the directors will meet once or twice very soon to create a “plan of action.” He said they need to decide how to deal with the many people who want to volunteer.

“We’ve had a lot of people tell us that they want to get involved,” he said. “We spent today at lunch pricing champagne, so hopefully we will prevail.”