Canyon Lake's Fire Services Balancing Act Still Playing Out

Canyon Lake will keep its lone fire station open – for the time being.

During Wednesday night’s regularly scheduled city council meeting, it was decided the issue of closure should be postponed to November, when a measure will likely be on the ballot for a special public safety tax to fund Canyon Lake’s Station 60. 

The city has maintained it doesn't have the money to pay for fire services.

City of Lake Elsinore officials have been watching the Canyon Lake situation and are wary of using their citizen taxpayer dollars to subsidize Canyon Lake’s fire protection. 

During a Lake Elsinore budget workshop last week, council members sent a message to their constituents and Canyon Lake officials. Lake Elsinore Mayor Bob Magee said he was in favor of being a good neighbor to Canyon Lake, but warned his city will not provide fire service to Canyon Lake “on the backs” of Lake Elsinore residents.

Lake Elsinore Brian Tisdale was adamant during the workshop, maintaining that Lake Elsinore has helped pay for Canyon Lake fire protection over the last five years.

“The City of Lake Elsinore will not subsidize Canyon Lake for fire services,” he said.

Tension about Canyon Lake’s fire services is nothing new.

During the 2011 Lake Elsinore budget workshop, Lake Elsinore City Council members pushed Cal Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Lawson, who at that time represented the city. Council members argued that 35 to 60 percent of service calls coming into Lake Elsinore's Canyon Hills Fire Station No. 94 were in Canyon Lake. Magee said the number was near 60 percent; Lawson maintained the figure was closer to 35 percent.

The salt in the wound has been that Canyon Lake offers no reciprocity.

"(There should be) clear direction that no one on this council wants to continue to subsidize," Magee told Lawson during the 2011 workshop.

Whether Canyon Lake residents will go for a new tax this November is very uncertain. On June 7, 2011, the residents there voted down Measure E, which was a tax assessment to pay for their public safety services, including fire.