Police, Fire Ready to Expand Services in Corvallis

June 17, 2019 - A pair of public safety fees is set to go into effect on July 1, giving a significant boost to police and fire services in Corvallis at a time when those resources are stretched thin by increasing calls for service.

With the new funding, the Corvallis Police Department will be able to boost its community-oriented policing strategy by hiring additional officers. This will help improve response times and allow CPD to engage in more proactive community policing practices, such as implementing more foot and bike patrols and increasing officer visibility in neighborhoods, as well as enhanced traffic enforcement.

In the Corvallis Fire Department, the increased funding will add coverage to the City's network of fire stations, enabling Station 2 (35th Street) and Station 3 (Circle Boulevard) to support both a fire vehicle and an ambulance for a simultaneous response. Under the previous model, most fire stations in Corvallis operated under an “either/or” arrangement, whereby each station was able to respond to either a fire call or a medical call — but not both. In a city the size of Corvallis, this model can lead to situations where all available crews are out on other calls, leaving no one available for a big emergency.

“Collectively, these fees represent the biggest investment in public safety in Corvallis in decades,” said City Manager Mark Shepard. “We’re now able to tackle some of the longstanding funding challenges that our public safety agencies have been facing in recent years.”

The two fees will be assessed on City Services bills, with a typical residential household paying $17.31 for both fees. If a 911 Service District is passed by voters this fall, the fees would drop to $13.04 to reflect new revenue expected from the service district.

Perhaps most importantly, the new public safety fee will be spread equally throughout the community, with businesses and large institutions that don’t pay property taxes (such as Oregon State University and Good Samaritan Hospital) helping to improve public safety in Corvallis.

More information about how the fees were developed and how they will be assessed is available online at www.corvallisoregon.gov/safetyfees.