Pollsters will begin calling voters in and around Bend on Thursday to ask whether they would support a five-year local option tax levy to improve firefighting and emergency medical services.

The survey will continue through the weekend and is supposed to include 400 recent voters in Bend and 100 recent voters who live in Deschutes County Rural Fire Protection District No. 2, said Bend Fire Chief Larry Langston.

“We want to know how the citizens feel about different services that the fire department and (its) emergency medical services provide, and we’re trying to determine if the citizens will support a local option levy on the May 2014 ballot,” Langston said.

In August, Langston told the City Council he hopes to ask voters in May for a five-year local option levy of 20 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value to pay for more firefighter paramedics and reduce response times. City councilors said they supported the idea, and the city projected the levy would raise an average of $2 million annually over five years. The fire department receives a cut of $1.18 per $1,000 in assessed property value from the city’s permanent tax rate of $2.80 per $1,000. Most of the remaining permanent tax rate revenue pays for police services.

Langston said earlier this year that he believes the fire department could lower its response time to six minutes within the city by adding two more ambulance crews, a total of 14 employees to cover three shifts. Currently, firefighter paramedics respond to emergency calls in the city within nine minutes, 80 percent of the time.

The city and rural district are paying Portland-based DHM Research $17,000 to conduct the survey, Langston said. The company was the lowest bidder for the project.

Fire officials will present the survey results to the City Council during a Jan. 8 meeting, Langston said. City councilors might also vote at the same meeting on a resolution to place a local option levy on the May ballot. The rural fire district board of directors will meet Jan. 14 to consider the issue, Langston said.

“The survey is going to be really fantastic for our fire department,” said Capt. Tricia Connolly, who is also president of the Bend Fire Association. The department already surveys a sample of the people who received emergency medical or firefighting services to determine whether the fire department met their needs. But Connolly said this survey will provide a broader picture of what people think of the fire department.

“We’re really going to learn the perception of the fire department by the public and if we’re meeting their needs, and if they understand we’re not only their fire service, but their ambulance service,” Connolly said.

If officials vote to place the local option levy on the May ballot, the firefighters association will use its political action committee to campaign in favor of the measure. Connolly said the survey results might yield information that will help firefighters educate the public on why they should vote for the measure.

“We’re hoping to go door-to-door because I think it’s really important that people meet their department,” Connolly said. “We’ve just been understaffed, and this will be so extremely helpful for the community and fire department.”

If the survey reveals that voters would not support a local option fire levy, Langston said officials will have to rethink how to proceed.

— Reporter: 541-617-7829, hborrud@bendbulletin.com