Argos holds second Fire Territory public hearing
There was a second public hearing regarding the proposed Argos Fire Protection Territory last week. The first public hearing was on Thursday, Jan. 28. The third and final meeting is on Thursday, March 4. At that meeting, the Town Council and Township Board will vote on whether to establish a fire territory. The vote has to be unanimous.
The Town of Argos, Green Township, and Walnut Township are the participating units. The Town of Argos is the provider unit and would be responsible for preparing the annual budget and performs
all necessary accounting and financial functions related to fire services.
A fire protection territory is a type of fire service consolidation provided by Indiana Code 36-8-19 enacted in 1994.
“The legislative body of a unit or fire protection district and the legislative body of at least one other contiguous unit or contiguous fire protection district may establish a fire protection territory for any of the following purposes: (1) Fire protection, including the capability for extinguishing all fires that might be reasonably expected because of the types of improvements, personal property, and real property within the boundaries of the territory. (2) Fire prevention, including identification and elimination of all potential and actual sources of fire hazard. (3) Other purposes or functions related to fire protection and fire prevention,” states the code.
Jeff Bellamy, attorney, represents several fire departments, territories, and districts throughout Indiana. He is also helping the formation of the Argos territory. Bellamy explained that on the third meeting there will be a vote to enter into the territory from the Town Council and the Township Board. If all three entities agree, then the next phase continues with a vote on whether or not to establish the equipment replacement fund.
“Obviously, everything in this great world comes down to funding,” said Mark Vanderweele, economic director for the Town of Argos. He went on to explain that the process was started by the townships and town looking for ways to find additional funding for their contractual obligations. “Probably in the last few years, our number one problem has been our EMS, staffing. Two years ago, we had problems fulfilling an ambulance at times, missing calls. At that time we tried to take steps to move forward to solve some of that.”
In 2019, Argos EMS had 232 calls and missed 53 of those calls. In 2020, they had 244 calls and missed 19.
According to the presentation, the EMS budget has risen 45 percent from 2019 to the current year’s budget due to staffing and funding shortages.
As far as the Fire Department staffing, Vanderweele said that it ran “pretty decent.”
Vanderweele said that with a fire, most area departments can come to help out if Argos Fire doesn’t have enough fire fighters. With EMS, that isn’t the case.
“We’ve gotten to a point by doing that so much we’ve gotten some notices from some of our surrounding entities that they are not as open to helping. And there’s no law, anything, that states they have to. That would be pretty hard to explain to a citizen,” said Vanderweele.
Other alternatives have been looked at. Vanderweele explained that they researched looking into having a private agency come in, but it would not have been cost effective. He said that an estimate for 2019 from one agency was $380,000, but even then the agency couldn’t guarantee 24-hour coverage.
“The other two (agencies), once they found out our call volume, they didn’t want anything to do with us,” Vanderweele said.
“This is almost the last nail in the coffin,” Vanderweele said in regards to establishing a fire territory as the last possible solution.
Hiring a full-time basic EMT was “the only solution” to guarantee that they have the coverage needed. Vanderweele said that they propose hiring three full-time EMT’S that would work a 24-hour shift “basically giving us 365, 7-days a week.”
Volunteer drivers will still be vital to the territory. “We still have people that want to volunteer,” he said.
On the Fire side of things, Vanderweele said that there are about 125 calls a year. The presentation stated that the current fire department will combine to become part of the territory and that there will be no full-time firemen.
“The Fire Department virtually is not going to change. In enacting this territory, it’s going to bring the EMS in line with the Fire Department. They will now be one department,” said Vanderweele.
If the territory does get enacted, there will be a three member Territory board put into place to govern the territory. Territory board members are appointed by each township and the Town of Argos.
Susan Cowen from Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors gave the summary of financial impact analysis portion of the public hearing.
She said that if the participating units are all in agreement, the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) would then approve an initial maximum property tax levy.
Cowen showed the net assessed value (NAV) for Argos, Green Township, and Walnut Township.
“So, what we’ll do for the fire territory is we’ll take the NAV from each of the three units, combine it and determine the rate that it’s going to take to support the budget that you’re starting out with for the territory,” she said.
Between the three units, the NAV for the proposed fire territory is as follows:
• 2021 - $166,680,157
• 2022 (estimated) - $169,351,491, a change of 1.6%
• 2023 (estimated) - $174,893,759, a change of 3.3%
• 2024 (estimated) - $176,835,979, a change of 1.1%
The balance to be funded from property tax would be $586,692, $551,204, and $568,498 for the first three years respectfully.
Cowen then showed the estimated property tax rate for the first three years of the fire territory. The first year would be $0.3464. The second year would be $0.3152. The third year is $0.3215.
The property tax rate is found from taking the balance to be funded from property tax and divide it by the estimated NAV.
Cowen explained that the property tax rate is the same for each participating unit.
The next thing that Cowen presented was the estimated district tax rate impact.
For Argos-green, estimates show -4.8% for 2022, -0.9% for 2023, and 0.2% for 2024. For Argos-walnut, estimates show -4.8% for 2022, -0.9% for 2023, and 0.2% for 2024. For Green Township, estimates show 21.5% for 2022, -1.6% for 2023, and 0.3% for 2024. For Walnut Township, estimates show 11.9% for 2022, -1.6% for 2023, and 0.3% for 2024.
She used Argos-walnut year one as an example. Even though there is a -4.8% “it does not work as a discount, or a decrease, for every property involved.” Cowen goes on to state “only up to a certain point will certain homes see any decrease in their tax bill, in town. Everybody else will see the same tax bill they would have prior to the fire territory.”
To calculate your current tax bill go to: https:// gateway.ifionline.org/calculatorsdlgf/ Taxcalculator.aspx. Select County and Tax District, enter assessed value of home and property type, select deductions if applicable, click “Estimated this Bill.”
The third and final public hearing on the proposed fire territory will be on Thursday, March 4 at 6:30 p.m. inside the Argos Fire Department.