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The Dewey Fire Department's annual memberships have drastically decreased since the fire dues were raised to $200 in recent years.

Assistant Fire Chief Cody Meade told the Dewey City Council on Monday night that a great number of citizens have requested that the dues be lowered so they can re-join. He said the DFD would like to hit $50 to $75 per membership.

After crunching some numbers, Meade said he does not believe it will be tough to hit more memberships for a year with the lower rates. He told the Dewey City Council that he is hoping to talk about this more in an upcoming meeting so they can set a hard due date for fire dues.

The current deadline is October 1st. Meade said the community's response and their support for the Dewey Fire Department has been exciting. He said they would like to get the rates lowered.

This is projected to help the DFD to some capacity as two of their fundraisers have already been canceled because of COVID-19. Their car show and gun raffle fundraisers generate around $10,000 a year, and that money was lost to the coronavirus.