County fire district boards approved

Steps taken toward new funding system seen likely to boost operating budgets

FORT SMITH — Four rural fire departments in Sebastian County have taken steps toward a new funding structure expected to boost their budgets.

Boards of commissioner nominations have been approved for the Big Creek and Riverdale fire departments in Lavaca and the Milltown-Washburn and Greenwood Rural fire departments in Greenwood during a public meeting, according to Sebastian County Judge David Hudson.

The Sebastian County Quorum Court approved an ordinance in September authorizing the conversion of these fire departments from 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations to fire protection districts. Hudson wrote in a memo for that meeting that the primary goal for such a conversion is to have a fire department’s operation cost assessed, levied and collected on county real estate tax statements by the county tax collector.

The ordinance states that, in accordance with Arkansas law, all annual fire protection district assessments extended and levied are payable when ad valorem real property taxes are payable. These assessments will be listed by the county as an involuntary collection beginning with the next ad valorem real property tax statement, meaning property owners will pay the assessments as a prerequisite to paying the taxes.

Hudson, who chaired a meeting Dec. 1, said each of the four fire districts submitted the names of five nominees to serve on their respective boards of commissioners, which will have five members. These nominations were due to the Sebastian County judge’s office by noon on Nov. 30, and included the following people:

Big Creek

▪ William C. Warren, Jr. of Charleston

▪ Harry Torres of Lavaca

▪ Toby Beavers of Lavaca

▪ Ali Rashidi of Lavaca

▪ Jacob Shotzman of Charleston

Riverdale

▪ Johnny Hobbs of Lavaca

▪ Tommy Smothers of Lavaca

▪ Bobby White of Lavaca

▪ John David May II of Lavaca

▪ James Corbell of Lavaca Milltown-Washburn

▪ Paul King of Huntington

▪ Phil Hicks of Greenwood

▪ Hunter Wiley of Greenwood

▪ James Rogers of Greenwood

▪ Gary Cumbie of Greenwood Greenwood Rural

▪ Jim Brown of Greenwood

▪ Gerald Thomas of Greenwood

▪ David Ozuna of Greenwood

▪ Larry Rogers of Greenwood

▪ Jody Morgan of Huntington

Hudson said one of the next steps for these new boards would be to appoint three assessors for each fire protection district to determine their respective levies as well as a per acre “timberland rate” that cannot exceed 5 cents per acre.

“Then, each fire district needs to complete their assessment and determine their levy, and get it to the county assessor’s office by Friday, Dec. 18,” Hudson said. “And then it will be entered into the records to … as a part of the tax book, to generate the real estate tax statements.”

“The board of commissioners may assess a flat fee per parcel of land, per acre or per landowner,” the ordinance states. “The board of commissioners may establish a different flat fee for the classification of property as commercial, residential or as unimproved property. The board of commissioners shall once a year order the assessors to reassess the annual benefits of protected property in the fire protection district, and the annual benefits may be raised or lowered as fire protection services benefiting the property change.”

In a memo included in the materials for the Dec. 1 meeting, Hudson wrote that the fire protection district levy collected in 2021 will be for 2021 fire protection services.

In another memo, Hudson gave an estimate of the revenue each fire department would stand to generate annually in the event of a flat levy of $ 35 per residential or commercial structure. In this hypothetical situation, after subtracting a 3% county collector’s commission from the gross, Greenwood Rural would get a net amount of $32,762; Big Creek would get $49,533; Milltown-Washburn would get $26,719; and Riverdale would get $6,586.

Hudson previously told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that state legislation provides a procedure that, upon passage of an ordinance, fire department dues can be placed on real estate property tax statements.

“The normal procedures are that the fire departments, through different options, send statements to the property owners … in their assigned district, and it’s voluntary for property owners to pay the fire dues each year,” Hudson said. “… I think that one of the fire departments stated that their percentage of collection’s about 30%, so it’s going to vary based on area.”

Hudson has said that this different method of billing and collection should positively affect the revenue supporting the operation of the fire departments.

Nathan Mendenhall, a Fort Smith-based lawyer who represents these four fire departments, said that converting to a fire protection district and having dues become mandatory is “absolutely critical” due to a lack of funding such rural volunteer fire departments receive through voluntary dues compared with municipal fire departments.

“It’s not unusual … for a fire department to receive 20, 30% of the dues that are supposed to be paid to them,” Mendenhall said. “It’s not a lot of money already, and then when you’re talking about 20% and 30%, you’re going to be [a] struggling department. You got to maintain fire trucks. Your equipment expires.”

The issue of funding is a constant battle for these departments, according to Mendenhall. In his opinion, to be able to have a mandatory due, even if some don’t pay, is “going to change their world.”

“It’s going to be such a boost not only just to the economic circumstances they face, but also to their morale, I believe,” Mendenhall said.