The Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation has been in a cooperative agreement with the Smith River Fire Protection District (District) for over ten (10) years. Every year the District and the Nation re-negotiate the payments based on the valuation of Trust properties located on or near the reservation.
Tribal Trust properties are held in Trust by the United States of American and are not subject to State and/or County property taxes as other fee-simple properties in Del Norte County are. As part of our agreement with the District, the Nation makes an annual payment to Smith River Fire Protection District which compensates for this lost tax revenue.
In May of this year, the Tribe received a request for a payment which was over 20 times the previous years’ payment. This triggered the necessity to discuss further the payment between the Smith River Fire Protection District and the Nation, to determine how this new dollar amount was arrived at.
All basic life support and fire services are still being provided to the residents on and off-reservation, as they were prior with SRFPD and Del Norte Ambulance.
The Tribe is currently in negotiations with the Smith River Fire Protection for rates which are in line with other commercial properties throughout Del Norte County so the District can continue to provide services to the Lucky 7 Enterprises as it has done for the last ten years.
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