MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Voters in Brier and Mountlake Terrace were backing annexation into South County Fire in the first ballot count Tuesday night.
About 80% of ballots returned by Brier residents supported joining the regional fire authority.
In Mountlake Terrace, over 91% voted for the measure.
“I’m ecstatic,” Mountlake Terrace City Council member and Mayor Kyoko Matsumoto-Wright said. “I just want to thank the voters for believing in what we had to do.”
Both cities currently contract with South County Fire for emergency medical services and fire protection. Their agreements were coming to an end, and both cities faced steep cost increases to potentially renew those deals or form their own departments.
Brier and Mountlake Terrace council members put annexation before their voters in the special election, hoping to get ahead of their contracts’ expiration dates with time to try again if it failed.
A simple majority is needed for the annexations.
Mountlake Terrace leaders said joining the fire authority was the best option because it keeps the same service provider for an estimated $395 a year for an average homeowner. The Mountlake Terrace City Council voted to lower its property taxes to offset some of the added cost of joining the fire authority.
“We just thought that was the fair thing to do,” Matsumoto-Wright said.
Almost 30% of ballots in Brier and just over 20% in Mountlake Terrace were returned in the first count.
South County Fire serves an area with around 300,000 residents in Lynnwood, Mill Creek and unincorporated areas south of Everett, as well as Brier, Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace which have service contracts. Over 325 firefighters work for South County Fire.
Ben Watanabe: 425-339-3037; bwatanabe@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @benwatanabe.
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