The Metro West Fire Protection District is asking voters in April to approve a $25 million bond issue to fund facility improvements and to buy new vehicles and equipment.
Proposition Service needs a 4/7th majority to pass.
If the bond issue is approved, no tax increase would be required but the district’s bond debt would be extended for 10 years.
G. Michael Krause III, the district’s chief of fire and emergency medical services, said voters approved similar bond issues in 2003 and 2013 and some of those bonds are close to being repaid.
Krause said Proposition S would allow the district to continue to collect 6.1 cents per $100 of assessed evaluation to fund capital improvements.
If the issue is not approved, the district’s tax rate would fall from 98.26 cents per $100 of assessed evaluation to 92.16 cents.
The owner of a home valued at $200,000 by the St. Louis County Assessor’s Office currently pays $373.39 per year in real estate taxes to the district. If voters choose not to extend the bond issues at their current rates, that payment would be reduced by $23.18 per year.
He said if the proposition fails, the district likely would approach the voters again.
Krause said money generated by the bond issue will be spent on fire station renovations, firetruck replacements, ambulance replacements, and equipment and self-contained breathing apparatus replacements.
“These bond funds will be spent on capital improvements and purchases for (fiscal year) 2023-2032,” he said. “In 2021, we pivoted from a 10-year to a 12-year replacement schedule for fire apparatus, squeezing 20 percent more usable life out of our trucks.”
Krause said it cost about $850,000 to replace a fire engine and somewhere between $1.3 million to $1.6 million to replace a ladder truck.
“Bond funds are critical for us to be able to support our firefighter-paramedics in carrying out our mission,” he said. “From trucks to fire hoses to the air packs on the firefighters’ backs, all of these critical items are funded with bond proceeds.”
Metro West Fire has five stations, with two in Wildwood at 18601 Starck Lane and 17065 Manchester Road.