Blaine County firefighters got a sweet Valentine’s Day gift in the form of an election. The question was whether the county should continue to collect a quarter-cent sales tax dedicated to the nine departments that serve the county. All are volunteers with the exception of some full-time paid firefighters in Watonga. The tax, collected for the past decade, has funded the purchase of necessities such as bunker gear, repairs to trucks, fuel, buildout on new or repurposed vehicles and communications products and programming on radios and cell phones.
The question passed handily, with more than 85% of the voters saying yes, the collection should continue with no sunset clause, versus nearly 15% saying no, the tax should be reworked.
There were 38 absentee voters, 28 for the proposition and 10 against; 720 voters countywide went to the polls Feb. 14 to make their choice known. In all, there were 805 votes cast.
The breakdown of the vote shows it carried in every precinct in the county.