The Cedar Hill Fire Protection District will ask voters on April 8 to approve an $11.6 million bond issue that Chief Mick Fischer says will help the district fund improvements to existing buildings, provide more training opportunities, hire more firefighters and upgrade outdated equipment.
The bond issue, called Proposition Fire, will require a four-sevenths majority vote for passage, and if approved. it would result in a tax increase of 29 cents per $100 assessed valuation.
Right now the district’s tax levy is $1.2261 per $100 assessed valuation, and if the ballot measure is approved, it would increase to $1.5161 per $100 assessed valuation.
The increase would cost the owner of a house valued at $150,000 by the county Assessor’s Office an extra $82.65 per year.
Fischer said the district does not intend to sell the entire amount of the bonds all at once but instead would sell them in phases as the district builds additions to the existing stations or buys new equipment.
If Prop Fire passes, Cedar Hill Fire would sell approximately $5 million in bonds immediately, he added.
“Our first goal (after passage) is building improvements,” Fischer said. “We’ve been trying to allocate money out of our general fund to do that, but we can’t keep up with the costs of what needs to be done.”
Plans
Fischer said revenue from the bond issue would be used to add an administrative office to Station 1 at 6766 Cedar Hill Road in Cedar Hill, which would allow the district to use the current office space as a training area for on-duty firefighters. The existing living quarters and training area on the smaller second-floor space would be remodeled and used exclusively for living quarters.
He said the last time the bunk rooms at Station 1 were updated was in the 1980s.
“We have three guys on duty who are here 24/7, and they just don’t have enough room up there to coexist,” Fischer said.
He said the district also plans to add a pole barn for storage and maintenance at Station 1, adding that the addition, renovations and pole barn would cost an estimated $2 million.
Plans also call for updates to be made to the bunk rooms at Station 2, 8800 Hwy. 30, in Dittmer and Station 3, 8790 Byrnesville Road, in Cedar Hill, Fischer said.
He said stations 2 and 3 were built when the district was 90 percent volunteer-operated, so the bunk spaces are small and inadequate for the present-day, mostly full-time staff.
“At Station 3, we currently have a group bunk room, and we want to change it to individual bunk rooms,” Fischer said. “People need a place to go that’s not a group area.”
After improvements to the fire district’s living quarters, Fischer said bond issue funds would be used to build a training facility at Station 1 similar to the one the De Soto Rural and Hillsboro fire protection districts share. That 3,000-square-foot facility cost $600,000 and was made of shipping containers stacked three stories high.
Fischer said having a training facility would not only better prepare Cedar Hill firefighters for emergencies, but also could improve the district’s Insurance Services Office rating, possibly leading to lower insurance premiums for residents.
“Training is a big factor in that rating that we’re deficient on,” he said. “We can try to help remedy that and gain some points by building this facility.”
Fischer said Prop F revenue also would be used to replace the district’s firetrucks that are at least 20 years old, as well as to replace older equipment, like breathing apparatuses. The district is also considering replacing its 3-inch supply hoses with 4-inch ones.
“As the houses continue to get bigger out here, we have to accommodate that by providing more water,” he said. “One way to do that is to use bigger hoses.”
By using Prop F funds to replace outdated equipment, Fischer said more money would be freed up in the district budget to hire additional firefighters. Over the years, the district’s volunteer force has gotten smaller, forcing the district to hire more part-time and full-time firefighters.
The district has 24 full-time staff members, 10 part-time firefighters and about 15 volunteers.
“While our volunteer staff is dwindling, our community is growing, our call volume is growing and we have to find a way to add that additional personnel,” he said. “For every firefighter we put on, it costs a little over $100,000. That’s not just their wages; it’s their benefits, worker’s compensation. Unfortunately, this is an expensive business, whether we’re hiring employees or purchasing a truck.”
The district had two previous bond issues – one in 1980 and another in 1994, and both were paid off early, Fischer said.
“I told our bond adviser that I wanted to continue that trend (of paying the bond back early),” he said. “I admire that our district leaders in the past were able to accomplish that. Our goal is to not utilize any more money than we have to and to pay it off as quickly as we can.”
The district’s three-person board voted unanimously Dec. 13 to place the bond issue on the ballot.