In November 2014, Stanfield residents voted for combining fire districts with Hermiston and Hermiston residents voted against it. Just over a year later and they're revisiting the issue and hoping to get the community's support.
We met with the Hermiston Fire Chief, Scott Stanton and he told us it's necessary and needed right now, "if we can't get this done, at some point someone is going to lose their life or their property because we can't get there fast enough". Stanton said as of now, there are about four delays a month and some months it can be even more. The delays are caused by calls coming in when the paramedics and firefighters are already out responding to other emergency calls, which leaves the new calls in a pending zone.
Part of the solution Stanton says, "form a brand new district with a new name, with a new tax rate". This will allow Hermiston and Stanfield to come together, a second fire house to be staffed and used and for response times to be lowered.
When the time comes for voting, he says the voters will have to, "the citizens of Stanfield will vote to dissolve their district, the citizens of Hermiston will vote to dissolve their district and then everyone together will vote to form and fund a new district".