Fire plan still in works; no funding for this year
What to do with the Polk County Fire Department is an ongoing question for both county residents and commissioners alike.
That question was delayed as it came before the Board of Commissioners, and once again they’ll be a wait to decide whether to provide funding for hiring part time firefighters at stations across the county by instituting a new tax for local residents.
Assistant County Manager Barry Akinson went before the Board of Commissioners during the Aug. 30 meeting following a vote on the millage rate that more time was needed to figure out the plan.
“We know that you all (the firefighters at the meeting) need help immediately,” Aksinson said and pointed to the crowd. “But we also have to do this the right way.”
It’ll be next year before the county can move forward on a potential plan to seek a single or two mills in the unincorporated areas plus the City of Aragon in a Special Service District.
Here’s where the plan stands currently: the County withdrew their application with a federal grant for full time hires within the department, and despite previous conversations about using a flat annual fire fee added to tax bills, is looking at the Special Service District millage rate option for funding.
There’s two different options for raising taxes with limited hires for the Polk County Fire Department, targeting four stations with the greatest manpower issues during daytime hours, and to gradually increase hires over the years for all stations in the county.
Those firefighters hired first would be utilized at fires across the county, and not just limited to specific service areas, and would also be available to respond to medical calls with ambulances during those working hours. A 12-hours on, 24-hours off schedule would likely be in place, with firefighters in stations from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week.
Doing so would also require the county to spend money on upgrading and repairing stations in order to make the habitable for staff during shifts.
Currently, they’re looking at mostly part time hires — with the exception of a volunteer coordinator funding for which is part of a grant from FEMA for volunteer fire recruitment and retention.
To fund the plan, they would setup a special service district within the unincorporated Polk County and the City of Aragon, which would assess either 1 mill or 2 mills of taxes to fund the department hires and upgrades.
All of this and more was explained during a special meeting with volunteer firefighters and local residents setup by the pair of county administrators on Monday night, less than two days before Commissioners could be voting on the issue. The meeting with volunteers and members of the public to talk about issues was prompted after several comments were made about the potential addition of a new millage rate during an Aug. 23 public hearing over the upcoming regular millage rate proposed for this year’s tax bills.
Previously, the county sought to help fund firefighter salaries through the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFER, was withdrawn in the past weeks according to Polk County Manager Matt Denton.
“When we applied for this grant, it was two part: a paid fireman grant and a volunteer fireman grant,” Denton said. “Now we have withdrawn our consideration for the paid fireman grant, due to the requirements and stipulations of that grant, and our ability at the current time and moment to fulfill the requirements, so it was withdrawn.”
Denton explained that the grant they hope to still get, for the development and recruitment of volunteers to cover costs of training, equipment, and a head coordinator position for the volunteers.
“It was a little over $1 million,” said assistant county manager Barry Akinson.
Denton turned over the explanation to Akinson of the two options available to the commission for the fire department funding currently, not including the third option of the commission voting to do nothing at all during the Wednesday night meeting, and leave funding for a 2018 decision.
Akinson said after the Aug. 7 work session, he was told to focus his efforts on smaller options for the Polk County Fire Department, which would require the collection of a single mill or two mills from local taxpayers in a new special service district in the unincorporated areas of Polk County, and the City of Aragon who also relies on the volunteer fire force for their main firefighting services.
“What we heard from our board was a plan where we could move a little slower, and move at a pace we know we can go,” Akinson said. “If we had gone forward with the SAFER grant, we would have needed fullystaffed fire stations and all the things required for that almost immediately. So we wanted to look at a plan that would allow us to control how fast we went.”
Akinson said the two different levels of funding all depends on both a combination of volunteers, part time and potentially full time paid staff.
“Those are the ones that I plan to bring back to the board on Wednesday night this week, and maybe for board discussion,” Akinson said.
The Aug. 30 session was the last day Polk County Commissioners can vote on a special service district millage rate, which would need to be added onto tax bills for both Aragon and county residents before they are mailed out in September.
Denton said the funding would pay for firefighters to get equipment to the scene during the daytime hours when volunteer time is limited by their usual jobs.
“It’s not full time positions, or to take over volunteer positions, but merely from the county’s perspective to get equipment to a scene,” Denton said.
Akinson said that tours of stations, large amounts of call data and coverage maps “where we’re trying to inter- pret everything. For instance at first we were looking at a five mile radius around each station, but now we’re looking at drive time because they are two different sets of data, and it’s critical.”
The coverage map still needed to be completed, Akinson said. During the Monday meeting, Denton and Akinson didn’t provide any specific figures, and they also admitted that figuring out if stations need to move and reconfiguring coverage for the Polk County Fire Department with potential new stations was still in the works.
This morning, Denton gave some further information on the numbers. A 1-mill increase on taxes through the Special Service District would generate an estimated $575,000 in taxes, with a 2-mill increase generating around $1.5 million.
Denton said they were estimates since the county can’t guarantee whether they will collect the full amount of property taxes annually, and that increases would vary from each property based on it’s value.
Monday’s meeting with volunteer firefighters and concerned citizens about the department provided a mix of comments about the ideas put forth so far.
Some voiced their approval of increasing taxes to help the fire department overcome manpower problems.
“We need a fire department that can put out a fire,” said Perry Williams, the chief of Station 6.
And there were plenty of questions as well, over how and when taxes would be assessed, how the plan was going to be enacted, and at least one comment from a former volunteer firefighter who told the administrators the county didn’t need to do anything at all.
Much of those comments came from firefighters themselves, who wanted to see something done to help the departments but hadn’t yet felt totally convinced by the current plan.
The last plan before the last work session on the issue was held on Aug. 7 looked at putting a mix of full and part time firefighters into stations over the next three years using the SAFER grant, which since then the county has withdrawn itself from consideration. If that plan had been considered, it would have required a special service district tax levy of 5 mills for the unincorporated parts of Polk County and the City of Aragon.
Previously, the commission has voted to allow for the plan to move forward with approval of sending in the application of the SAFER grant, but that’s the only step they’ve taken.
Funding efforts were previously settled on a plan to institute a fee-based structure added into tax bills annually, but Tax Commissioner Kathy Cole told the county administration she wouldn’t allow such a move.