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FALCON, COLO. -- Falcon Fire stood to lose thousands of dollars in 2012 because of declining property values and expiring federal grants.

Jobs were on the line, so they turned to the voters for help asking them to approve Issue 5E, a mill levy adjustment.

The issue passed earlier this month, but barely.

Unofficial election results showed fewer than 100 votes separated the yes's from the no's.

The mill levy increased property taxes for homeowners in Falcon by about $3 a month, but fire officials said those $3 will go a long way.

"This was not about government growth. We were going to lose firefighters," Trent Harwig, Chief of Falcon Fire, said.

Harwig said if the vote didn't go through there were six positions that were going to be lost.

"We already had notified three that their positions would be immediately lost, and three more by the first of the year, and that situation was real, that was going to happen. With this going through now none of that is going to happen," Harwig said.

Harwig said the new mill levy will allow them to keep those positions but doesn't allow for any new growth.

"This is a sustainable budget mill levy that we asked for, it will maintain what we currently have," Harwig said.

Harwig said the area is in need of more firefighters and more stations, but that will have to wait.

"We have a few fire stations that we need to build. Claremont Ranch, our area in the south end of our fire district, needs a fire station at some point in the future, but this does not generate the funds to do that. We have a station in the north end of our district in the Black Forest area that we would like to put living quarters on and put staff in to reduce response times up there, and this doesn't generate the funds for that," Harwig said.

Harwig said they don't have any plans to ask the voters for another tax increase at this time, and they will just have to wait on the economy.

"If things start growing again, if houses and commercial buildings start being built in the area again, we can address those strategic plan issues in the future, but for right now it will just maintain what we currently have," Harwig said.

Knowing the vote would be close, a group of volunteers hit the streets before election day and tried to inform the community.

"We did a lot, basically we created brochures, banners, we put an ad in the New Falcon Herald," Matt Seube, a member of Friends of Falcon Fire, said.

Seube said they felt it was important to get the community as much information as possible.

"This area is known for not passing taxes, and with everything that went on in the state, with a lot of things that were voted no on as far as tax issues, our focus was to really provide as much factual information as possible so people could make a vote and judge for themselves," Seube said.

Harwig said if the department would have lost those positions they would have had to go back to a more volunteer response basis, which would have increased response times.

"Falcon grew a lot in the last 10 years, and as such our call volume did as well as you can imagine, and we hired firefighters because of that, full time staff. In 2000 this was a 100 percent volunteer organization, now it's about 50/50, half of our staff is paid and half is volunteer," Harwig said.

Falcon Fire covers 130 square miles and has the third highest call volume in El Paso County, and they do it with only 21 paid staff members.

"The biggest risk is back-to-back calls and large calls. If it's a fire, or a structure fire, or a house on fire, our staffing levels don't meet any standards as far as the number of people required to mitigate that situation. With our volunteer staff response we can get there, it just takes time," Harwig said.

By passing 5E voters approved the first tax increase in 11 years.

"The last one was in 2000, and that's the only one they've had since the taxing district was formed in 1981, so this is the second time the voters have approved a tax increase since the inception of the district in 1981," Harwig said.

Harwig and Seube said they are thankful the votes came through and appreciate the support.

"Statewide if you look there wasn't a lot of taxing questions that passed in this state in this election. Falcon was one of the lucky ones, and I think that shows a lot of support from our citizens for the fire department, and we certainly appreciate that, and we will do all we can to be frugal with their funds," Harwig said.