Early voting starts today in 2 fire district elections
Early voting begins today at the Garland County Election Commission building, 649-A Ouachita Ave., for July 9 special elections authorizing the
70 West and Piney fire departments to list their annual membership dues on real property tax statements.
Voters registered at addresses in the departments’ service areas are eligible to participate. A precinct list on the election commission website shows the
21 precinct parts in 70 West’s
188-square-mile service area cover most of the county’s southwest, including the Highway 70 west and Highway 270 west corridors. Lake Hamilton School and Forrest Hill Apartments are two of the bigger properties in the service area.
Piney’s jurisdiction spans 36 precinct parts in the central and west-central parts of the county, including areas bordering Lake Ouachita.
The election commission said 17,316 people are eligible to vote in the two elections, with most of them registered in 70 West’s jurisdiction. The commission said almost 800 Hot Spring County voters are also eligible to vote in the 70 West election.
Early voting is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, Wednesday, Friday and Monday, with polls closed Thursday for the Fourth of July holiday. Piney Grove Methodist Church, 2963 Airport Road, and the Old Armory Building, 401 Mid-America Blvd., are vote center locations for election day voting from 7:30 a.m. to
7:30 p.m.
Putting membership dues on tax bills gives volunteer fire departments taxing authority similar to school districts, which have their annual millages levied by the quorum court. Voters inside The Lake Hamilton Fire Department’s service area authorized it to list dues on real property tax statements last year, voting in a February
2018 special election to form a
fire district that converted the department from a nonprofit corporation to a quasi-governmental entity authorized to impose liens or file court claims for unpaid dues.
About 8 percent of the more than
6,000 people eligible to vote participated in the election.
A new law makes paying fire district dues listed on real property tax statements a prerequisite to paying local real estate taxes. The Association of Arkansas Counties has said delinquent dues can’t be referred to the state land commissioner’s office, which auctions off tax-delinquent properties, but fire districts can impose liens to recover delinquent dues and charge attorney fees to delinquent real property owners.
County tax collectors can refer delinquent dues to fire districts after Jan.
1 of each year. The AAC has said collectors can choose to accept tax payments without dues payments after both go delinquent, effectively separating the two payments.
Tony Dzianott, 70 West board member and treasurer, said delegating billing responsibility to the county is the only practical means the department has to increase its 41 percent rate of collection in Garland County. Dues are collected on about 3,500 of the 9,200 parcels with habitable structures in 70 West’s service area, he said.
Improving collection rates will increase revenue without raising dues, the department said, giving it more income to replace an aging fleet of vehicles and respond to increased call volume. The department said calls for service have increased significantly since the Garland County 911 Communications Center began dispatching volunteer firefighters in March. Calls doubled in April and May compared to last year, and 24 were received during the first week of June compared to 65 for the entire month in 2018.
Most calls are related to medical emergencies and vehicles crashes.
“We have no legal recourse currently to collect dues as an association, unless people pay voluntarily,” Dzianott said. “We send out postcards. If you don’t pay, we send out another and another. The only other option would be to go knock on doors. With 188 square miles, it wouldn’t be worth it. You’d have diminishing returns, and half the folks would get annoyed with people knocking on their doors.
“I feel comfortable saying that the majority of the people living in the district appreciate the fire department and understand the importance of everybody paying dues, not just the minority who’s paying dues now.”
Dzianott said urban transplants recently new to the fast-growing area are unaware their tax dollars don’t pay for fire protection. The number of people operating under that misconception has grown since the district formed in 1969, he said.
“Back then the area was pretty rural,” he said. “Folks paid their dues when there wasn’t as many people. A number of people from larger cities have moved in as we’ve grown. They just assume fire protection is part of their taxes. They don’t know. That’s part of the reason that as growth has happened we haven’t been receiving dues. People just aren’t aware they need to pay.”
Dzianott said the department has 40 firefighters and a paid staff of three that includes the chief, an office worker and a building maintenance/vehicle repair worker. Firefighters qualify for an annual $125 stipend if they respond to a certain number of calls, he said.
In addition to dues income, the department receives money insurance carriers collect on homeowner’s policies. That money is remitted to the state and distributed to volunteer departments. Dzianott said it accounts for 12 to 14 percent of 70 West’s funding.