Alamance County’s leaders had a chance to turn up the heat this week on six rural fire departments that have proposed increases in the special property taxes that help subsidize their operations.
The chiefs or assistant chiefs of these six agencies appeared before the county’s board of commissioners on Monday to explain why they’ve requested hikes, ranging from 1 to 3 cents, in the secondary levies that are tacked onto the property tax bills of the people they serve.
The six officials who approached the commissioners that morning accounted for exactly half of the county’s rural fire districts, where fire protection comes from a hodgepodge of volunteer and semi-professional outfits as well as a couple of municipal fire departments whose jurisdictions extend into unincorporated areas.
Yet, these six agency heads were driven by many of the same financial pressures to come hat in hand before the county’s governing board.
[Story continues below chart on current fire district tax rates and proposed increases.]
Jimmy Westbrook, the chief of the Faucette fire department, insisted that the sheer cost of doing business has become too much for his agency, which serves an area north of Burlington’s municipal limits.
“Like every other chief has been saying, the increase we’re requesting is for the cost of operating. . . Most of that increase is going to come from a new fire truck we have just purchased. . . Then there’s the cost of outfitting, uniforms for firefighters, pagers . . and part-time personnel because you know volunteers aren’t readily available during the day.”
– Faucette fire chief Jimmy Westbrook
“Like every other chief has been saying, the increase we’re requesting is for the cost of operating,” Westbrook told the commissioners. “Most of that increase is going to come from a new fire truck we have just purchased…Then there’s the cost of outfitting, uniforms for firefighters, pagers…and part-time personnel because you know volunteers aren’t readily available during the day.”
Westbrook added that his agency is seeking an extra penny on the 8 cent property tax that’s presently assessed in his district in order to provide an additional $80,414 a year to pay for new gear, extra part-time assistance, and the debt payments on his agency’s new fire engine.
Meanwhile, an increase in professional staff was the big impetus for Jerry Boone, the chief of the Snow Camp fire department, to ask his district’s 8.7-cent rate to be nudged up by 1.3 cents.
“We’re asking for an additional 24 hour person, and the reason we’re asking for an additional 24 hour person is that we currently have one person working by themselves.” – Snow Camp fire chief Jerry Boone
“We’re asking for an additional 24 hour person,” he added, “and the reason we’re asking for an additional 24 hour person is that we currently have one person working by themselves.”
Boone said that a portion of the $111,478 he hopes to bring in would bestow full-time status on existing, part-time posts, including his own position as chief.
Additional staffing was, likewise, the end goal of Jacob Littell of Northeast Alamance, whose fire department serves residents in the Pleasant Grove Area. Littell said that an additional 1.7 cents on his district’s existing 8.3-cent rate would bring in $125,269 to add more paid firefighters to his agency’s traditional volunteer corps.
“Volunteers are hard to come by. They seem to leave faster than we can get them in. . . So, we’re hoping that staffing will help.”
– Jacob Littell, Northeast Alamance fire chief
“Volunteers are hard to come by,” he went on to explain. “They seem to leave faster than we can get them in…So, we’re hoping that staffing will help.”
Littell noted that he plans to set aside $100,000 in the next fiscal year to upfit his fire station to provide living accommodations for these additional paid firefighters.
Capital outlays were also an overriding concern for Ed Lipscomb from Altamahaw-Ossipee fire department. Lipscomb asked the commissioners to add 2 cents to his district’s 10-cent levy to cover, among things, a multi-year effort to repave his agency’s parking lot.
“Our parking lot is in really bad shape, and the plan is to have that done in two years.”
– Altamahaw-Ossipee fire chief Ed Lipscomb
“Our parking lot is in really bad shape,” he added, “and the plan is to have that done in two years.”
Commissioner Kelly Allen observed that a new parking surface can, indeed, be a colossal expense for a fire department due to the wear and tear that its vehicles inflict on the pavement. In the meantime, Lipscomb noted that he also plans to fund another paid part-time position with the $166,025 that his proposed tax hike would generate.
In contrast, capital needs are expected to eat up almost all of the 3 cent increase that Luke Macon sought on behalf of the E.M. Holt fire department, which serves an area that lies south of Burlington’s municipal limits.
“The reason we’re requesting an increase is for a new fire station. We’re growing and we’re unable to expand where we’re at.”
– Luke Macon, E.M. Holt Fire Department
“The reason we’re requesting an increase is for a new fire station,” Macon explained when he appeared before the commissioners. “We’re growing and we’re unable to expand where we’re at.”
Macon recalled that his department has already purchased two acres along NC 62 with the proceeds from the sale of some donated land.
“We got a quote for a new station for roughly $4.2 million,” he added, “and the payment on that building would be anywhere from $270,000 to $300,000.”
The county estimates an annual haul of $385,894 from a 3 cent increase on the E.M. Holt district’s current property tax rate of 7.9 cents.
The lowest anticipated gain from any of the proposed hikes would go to Elon’s fire department, which has requested an additional 1.35 cents on top of the 8.65 cents that’s currently levied on property owners outside the town’s corporate limits.
According to the town’s fire chief Landon Massey, the $58,922 that this increase would raise would help to offset the financial burden that the town’s own residents have born for some recent staffing additions as well as the $2 million purchase of a new ladder truck.
“Over the past five years, we have not asked for an increase through our county district. All that was done through the town of Elon.”
– Elon fire chief Landon Massey
“Over the past five years,” he added, “we have not asked for an increase through our county district. All that was done through the town of Elon.”
Each of the six rate increases that were presented to the commissioners on Monday have received an endorsement from either the fire department’s board of directors or, in Elon’s case, the members of its town council. A public hearing has also occurred to solicit feedback on the various rate changes.
Even so, the final decision on these proposed tax hikes will rest with the county’s board of commissioners.
During Monday’s proceedings, commissioner Kelly Allen commiserated with the financial plights of these rural fire districts based on her experience as the former mayor of Haw River, whose own fire department serves an extraterritorial district outside its borders. The county’s rural fire departments also received some encouraging words from commissioner Ed Priola, who has otherwise cast himself as an opponent of increases in property taxes.
“I look very fondly on your testimony, chiefs,” he told the representatives of these six agencies. “You all provide core services, and that’s where my heart is…we’re talking about saving lives.”
Priola nevertheless asked the county’s staff for data on trends in fire district tax rates before he and his colleagues vote on the county’s next annual budget on June 16.
