Central Crossing Fire propositions pass, department to be staffed 24 hours
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April 12, 2018
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Charlea Estes-Jones
With votes tallied, both Barry and Stone County voters showed up at the polls heavily in favor of new levies that will help to financially support the Central Crossing Fire Department. Two propositions appeared on the ballot for the fire department, each requested a $0.30 cent levy per $100 of assessed property value to fund the department. The 30 cent levy will be used to fund operational support and the other 30 cent levy will make the fire department staffed 24 hours a day.
Central Crossing Fire Chief Rusty Rickard said, “We’re thankful for the good turn out and positive results. Obviously, we’re looking forward to the future. We’ve still got a pretty difficult financial year ahead of us just to get through 2018, but we’re looking forward to the future. We thank voters for the support they’ve shown us.”
Rickard sent out a letter to voters prior to the election explaining the reason the board was putting the issue before the voters. In the letter, Rickard said, “It is past time to determine if the department should ‘get smaller’ or ‘get bigger.’”
Rickard said the fire department’s board of directors was faced with tough decisions regarding funding. He said, “The whole plan for this was the board was up against some very difficult decisions as far as our future was concerned. Rather than making those decisions without talking to the voters, that led us to this election. Thankfully, things went well and the voters have spoken what their desires are for us moving forward.”
According to figures provided by Central Crossing, the average resident will see a $35 to $70 increase on their home taxes annually.
Rickard said that a lot of the groundwork has already been laid for the changes with the new levy in 2019. He said, “On the equipment side, that’s where we’ve seen the biggest issue. We have old and outdated equipment. A lot of the equipment work assessment had to be done before we went to voters just to see what funding we needed. We didn’t want to go out and say we needed a ten cent levy when we needed a 40 cent levy. So we did a lot of that ahead of time.
“Our desires are already in place for equipment.”
As far as staffing, that will be new for the department. In the same regard as the equipment, Rickard said research was done prior to asking voters to make the decision. “On the staffing side of things, we’ve done research as to the cost and benefits for the same reasons to figure out how much money we needed to ask for. The policies and paperwork and operational side of those things is what we’ll be diving off into between now and the first of 2019,” he said.
Rickard said that the board of directors didn’t want to make decisions to scale back services or get rid of equipment without letting voters make the decision. He said, “We tried to get people to understand from the beginning that we don’t have to grow, but we either had to get bigger or get smaller for lack of better terms. We couldn’t continue the way we were going. Our maintenance and repair bills completely absorbed our new equipment budget and was eating into our operational budget. Our board wasn’t willing to continue this way because you can’t run a business that way.
“They were prepared to make some substantial cuts and close some fire stations and get rid of some of our fleet and downsize. But before they did that and impacted the services to the public, they wanted the public to speak, and the public has spoken.”
With both propositions passing, equipment will be tested and improved, and the department will now employ six certified firefighter/EMTs for full-time coverage as well as one office/clerical staff member. Two certified firefighter/EMTs will be at the station’s headquarters 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In the letter sent out by Rickard to voters, the following benefits were listed if the Proposition 1 passed:
• Allow operations of your fire department to continue in a progressive direction
• Permit upgrades, replacement, repairs and testing of fleet and equipment
• Improve local communications/paging system after federal mandated changes
• Provide necessary safety gear and protective equipment for members
• Purchase proper extrication and rescue equipment for use on newer vehicles
• Begin replacement of old trucks/apparatus
• Improve training and develop a facility to train volunteers
• Increase call per diem for volunteers
• Department rating (ISO) maintains/improves for insurance savings to the public.
The following was listed if Proposition 2 passed:
• Employ six certified Firefighter/EMT’s for full time coverage and one office/clerical staff
• Two certified Firefighter/EMT’s will be stationed at headquarters every day 24/7
• Staff responsible for maintenance of apparatus, equipment, stations and grounds
• Quicker response time to fire and medical calls
• Volunteers are still very much needed and required
Voters were heavily in favor of both propositions. Barry County voters supported Proposition 1 with 435 yes votes to 141 no votes. Stone County supported the proposition with 212 yes votes to 87 no votes. On Proposition 2, Barry County voters supported it with 367 yes votes against 207 no votes. Stone County supported Proposition 2 with 185 yes votes to the 118 no votes.
Proposition 1 passed with 73.9 percent of the vote. Proposition 2 passed with 62.9 percent of the vote. Voters also elected Dave Wilhelm and Debbie Gerleve to the board of directors. They beat out Chris Gibbons. Wilhelm had 491 votes, Gerleve had 431 votes and Gibbons had 352 votes.
With votes tallied, both Barry and Stone County voters showed up at the polls heavily in favor of new levies that will help to financially support the Central Crossing Fire Department. Two propositions appeared on the ballot for the fire department, each requested a $0.30 cent levy per $100 of assessed property value to fund the department. The 30 cent levy will be used to fund operational support and the other 30 cent levy will make the fire department staffed 24 hours a day.
Central Crossing Fire Chief Rusty Rickard said, “We’re thankful for the good turn out and positive results. Obviously, we’re looking forward to the future. We’ve still got a pretty difficult financial year ahead of us just to get through 2018, but we’re looking forward to the future. We thank voters for the support they’ve shown us.”
Rickard sent out a letter to voters prior to the election explaining the reason the board was putting the issue before the voters. In the letter, Rickard said, “It is past time to determine if the department should ‘get smaller’ or ‘get bigger.’”
Rickard said the fire department’s board of directors was faced with tough decisions regarding funding. He said, “The whole plan for this was the board was up against some very difficult decisions as far as our future was concerned. Rather than making those decisions without talking to the voters, that led us to this election. Thankfully, things went well and the voters have spoken what their desires are for us moving forward.”
According to figures provided by Central Crossing, the average resident will see a $35 to $70 increase on their home taxes annually.
Rickard said that a lot of the groundwork has already been laid for the changes with the new levy in 2019. He said, “On the equipment side, that’s where we’ve seen the biggest issue. We have old and outdated equipment. A lot of the equipment work assessment had to be done before we went to voters just to see what funding we needed. We didn’t want to go out and say we needed a ten cent levy when we needed a 40 cent levy. So we did a lot of that ahead of time.
“Our desires are already in place for equipment.”
As far as staffing, that will be new for the department. In the same regard as the equipment, Rickard said research was done prior to asking voters to make the decision. “On the staffing side of things, we’ve done research as to the cost and benefits for the same reasons to figure out how much money we needed to ask for. The policies and paperwork and operational side of those things is what we’ll be diving off into between now and the first of 2019,” he said.
Rickard said that the board of directors didn’t want to make decisions to scale back services or get rid of equipment without letting voters make the decision. He said, “We tried to get people to understand from the beginning that we don’t have to grow, but we either had to get bigger or get smaller for lack of better terms. We couldn’t continue the way we were going. Our maintenance and repair bills completely absorbed our new equipment budget and was eating into our operational budget. Our board wasn’t willing to continue this way because you can’t run a business that way.
“They were prepared to make some substantial cuts and close some fire stations and get rid of some of our fleet and downsize. But before they did that and impacted the services to the public, they wanted the public to speak, and the public has spoken.”
With both propositions passing, equipment will be tested and improved, and the department will now employ six certified firefighter/EMTs for full-time coverage as well as one office/clerical staff member. Two certified firefighter/EMTs will be at the station’s headquarters 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In the letter sent out by Rickard to voters, the following benefits were listed if the Proposition 1 passed:
• Allow operations of your fire department to continue in a progressive direction
• Permit upgrades, replacement, repairs and testing of fleet and equipment
• Improve local communications/paging system after federal mandated changes
• Provide necessary safety gear and protective equipment for members
• Purchase proper extrication and rescue equipment for use on newer vehicles
• Begin replacement of old trucks/apparatus
• Improve training and develop a facility to train volunteers
• Increase call per diem for volunteers
• Department rating (ISO) maintains/improves for insurance savings to the public.
The following was listed if Proposition 2 passed:
• Employ six certified Firefighter/EMT’s for full time coverage and one office/clerical staff
• Two certified Firefighter/EMT’s will be stationed at headquarters every day 24/7
• Staff responsible for maintenance of apparatus, equipment, stations and grounds
• Quicker response time to fire and medical calls
• Volunteers are still very much needed and required
Voters were heavily in favor of both propositions. Barry County voters supported Proposition 1 with 435 yes votes to 141 no votes. Stone County supported the proposition with 212 yes votes to 87 no votes. On Proposition 2, Barry County voters supported it with 367 yes votes against 207 no votes. Stone County supported Proposition 2 with 185 yes votes to the 118 no votes.
Proposition 1 passed with 73.9 percent of the vote. Proposition 2 passed with 62.9 percent of the vote. Voters also elected Dave Wilhelm and Debbie Gerleve to the board of directors. They beat out Chris Gibbons. Wilhelm had 491 votes, Gerleve had 431 votes and Gibbons had 352 votes.