Tri-Community exploring tax hike referendum
Financial support of the Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department through increased taxes and the addition of a fire station were discussed Monday at the Marion County Board of Supervisors.
Dewayne Stuckey of the Tri-Community Fire Protection Board spoke with supervisors during their regular monthly meeting at the offices on Courthouse Square.
“As you all know, we’ve been trying to look at long-range funding for the district and the Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department,” he said. “We figured out that we have some challenges and we’re trying to proactively plan for them.”
Stuckey also shared information on several other fire-related items.
“Tri-Community and South Marion have been working on moving some district lines around,” he said. “We met with them and they seemed pretty receptive to the idea. We haven’t formally agreed on any of it yet.”
During the past two years, B.H. Patterson has spoken to the Board about being within five miles of a Tri-Community fire station but being in South Marion’s district, a situation that has cost him thousands of dollars in insurance payments.
“These moves here will give the people a significant reduction in insurance,” Stuckey said. “For instance, Mr. Patterson down here is over five miles from a South Marion fire station, which now has a Class 9 rating, and will be within a five-mile radius of our (TCVFD) Station 5 response area. We would propose that we would pick that up and other areas south of Jackson Drive. It kind of makes sense. Then South Marion would pick up some houses in the East Columbia area. They’ve never been in our district, but they are in our response area. It is outside of the five miles, so these people are getting a Class 10 right now and that would overnight change to a Class 9, a savings for them. There wouldn’t be any changes of funding. It would simply be moving the properties into districts to try to help the people in these areas.”
Stuckey said that insurance companies and local officials had been receiving a lot of phone calls about increasing insurance premiums.
“Some have gone from having Columbia’s Class 6 to a Class 10,” Stuckey said. “That would cost them more than double what they were paying. This one thing that is easy to do and we would need a resolution to do. You would approve it and say it was the right thing to do. We would work with the State Rating Bureau and moved the mapping around. It’s fairly simple.”
Stuckey also discussed potential changes for the TCVFD, including a potential Station 6 near the Columbia-Marion County Airport.
“We’ve requested through the Airport Board to potentially let us use a building north of the runway down in the hollow that would make a perfect fire station or at least a temporary one,” he said. “That building is slated to be torn down, but it is our understanding that it doesn’t have to be torn down. We could potentially keep it as either a temporary or a permanent Station 6. We have to order a replacement truck for our Engine 5. Instead of trading the old one in, we’re going to keep it. It is good to be certified for about three more years. We would keep it and park it in that station. As soon as that’s done, all of these people outside the city of Columbia through Lakeview and all would go from a Class 10 rating to a Class 7, a substantial savings in insurance for them.”
Stuckey said the TCVFD Board also has to monitor Columbia’s annexation process because some of the properties in the proposed Station 6 are would be included in the annexation.
Stuckey also said the volunteer fire department wants to seek a referendum on the ballot on June 5, 2018, for additional millage to help purchase equipment.
“We would look at a two or three mill increase to help finance equipment and new stations or renovations to stations,” he said.
To appear on the June ballot, a decision would have to be made by early next year and signatures sought. The millage would only increase within the Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Protection District.
More discussions will likely take place between now and January with the Board.
Pictured Above: Dewayne Stuckey of the Tri-Community Volunteer Protection Board shares information with the Marion County Board of Supervisors Monday. The volunteer fire department wants to seek a referendum on the ballot on June 5, 2018, for additional millage to finance equipment, new stations or renovations. It’s exploring adding a sixth station near the Columbia-Marion County Airport, which would potentially result in substantial fire insurance savings for homeowners. | Photo by Mark Rogers
