70 West, Piney fire district elections today

Turnout skewed older during four days of early voting in today’s elections authorizing the 70 West and Piney fire departments to list annual membership dues on real property tax statements.

The Garland County Election Commission’s poll book software showed 327 of the 395 voters who cast ballots through Monday afternoon were 55 or older. Polls will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. today at Piney Grove Methodist Church, 2963 Airport Road, and the Old Armory Building, 401 Mid-America Blvd.

Voters registered at addresses inside the departments’ service areas are eligible to participate. Owning real property isn’t required to vote, but property owners are ineligible if they are registered at addresses outside the two service areas.

Seventy West’s jurisdiction covers 188 square miles comprising 21 precinct parts in the county’s southwest, including the Highway 70 west and Highway 270 west corridors. Part of the area extends into Hot Spring County. Piney’s jurisdiction sprawls across 36 precinct parts in the central and west-central of the county, including areas bordering Lake Ouachita.

Election Commission Chairman Gene Haley said today’s turnout could be three to four times higher than the four days of early voting at the election commission building. The prediction is based on early voting relative to election day voting during the February 2018 Lake Hamilton Fire Department election. Fewer than 100 ballots were cast during five days of early voting compared to 369 at department headquarters on election day.

The measure passed 356-113, allowing the department to form a fire district and list its annual membership dues on real property tax statements. Turnout was about 8 percent of the more than 6,000 people who were eligible to vote. Turnout through Monday afternoon in today’s elections was slightly more than 2 percent

of about 17,300 eligible voters.

“I think it could be the same,” Haley said of turnout for today’s elections compared to last year’s fire district election. “Some 8 to 10 percent would be a fair assumption I would think.”

If voters endorse the ballot questions, the departments’ dues will be levied by the Garland County Quorum Court, giving them taxing authority similar to school districts. Seventy West said last week that giving the county billing and collecting authority is its only practical means of increasing a 41 percent rate of collection in Garland County. The department said last week that dues are collected on about 3,500 of the 9,200 parcels with habitable structures in its service area.

The department expects the transition from a nonprofit corporation to a quasi-governmental entity authorized to impose liens and file court claims for unpaid dues will increase the collection rate to 80 or 90 percent, allowing it to purchase new equipment and respond to higher call volumes without raising annual membership dues, the department said.

The elections were scheduled after the Legislature passed a law this spring that makes paying annual fire dues listed on real property tax statements a prerequisite to paying local real estate taxes.