Special election scheduled for Lake Hamilton fire district
A special election to levy Lake Hamilton Fire Association dues on real property tax bills will be held Feb. 13, the same day Hot Spring County members of the association will vote.
The Garland County Quorum Court on Monday night adopted the ordinance calling for the special election fewer than three weeks before the deadline for the county election commission to deliver absentee ballots to the county clerk’s office. State election law requires clerks to receive absentee ballots no later than 47 days before an election.
The election day date was set when the Hot Spring County Quorum Court adopted the association’s special election ordinance earlier this year, requiring Garland County’s ordinance to follow suit. Election Commission Chairman Gene Haley said election day voting for Garland County members of the association will be at Lake Hamilton fire department headquarters, 1111 Highway 290. Early voting will be held at the election commission building, 649A Ouachita Avenue.
The state code’s local government section requires the volunteer fire associations to bear the cost of such elections.
Unlike the ordinance the quorum court adopted in October enabling Morning Star Fire Protection Association dues to be placed on property
tax statements, the special election will determine if Lake Hamilton members are willing to allow the quorum court to levy fire dues in the same way it levies taxes for school districts and municipal governments.
If association members approve the measure, dues will begin being levied on 2018 real property tax bills. The payment deadline will be October 2019.
The Morning Star association collected signatures of more than half its association members who voted in the previous general election, allowing the quorum court to bill membership dues on property tax statements without calling for a special election.
The signatures of more than 10 percent of association members who voted in the governor’s race during the preceding general election that included a gubernatorial contest are required to petition the quorum court for a special election.
The petition-and-ordinance method used by Morning Star and the special election process Lake Hamilton is pursuing both allow volunteer fire departments to sue members for delinquent payments. State law does not give associations created under the former method authority to issue bonds or use revenues from dues to secure bond indebtedness without holding a special election.
Department of Emergency Management Director Bo Robertson told the quorum court that having dues levied or collected by the county gives volunteer fire departments the financial certainty to plan long term. He said he expects the county’s other volunteer departments to petition for the placement of their dues on property tax statements.
Hot Springs’ annexation of the Burchwood Bay and Twin Points road areas last year has cost the Lake Hamilton association $45,000 a year, according to a resolution the association’s board of directors adopted in August. The resolution called for the Hot Springs Board of Directors to repeal the annexation ordinance.
The city’s pending annexation of the area comprising Lakeland and Lake Hamilton drives and Buena Vista Road will shrink the association’s dues base by another $78,000, according to the resolution.
The enabling ordinance was adopted in January 2016, but a lawsuit filed by affected residents has prevented the city from enacting the annexation. The complaint was dismissed in Garland County Circuit Court earlier this year, but the ruling is on appeal before the state Court of Appeals.
The association has said the annexation could limit its ability to fight fires on lakefront property, as its four fireboats are the area’s only waterborne firefighting apparatuses.
Its 44-square-mile service area is south of the city and includes part of Hot Spring County. The association said it billed 4,500 members prior to the annexation of the Burchwood Bay and Twin Points road areas.