Bethany to vote Aug. 4 on fire district question

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Persons living in Bethany and adjoining areas will vote next Tuesday, Aug. 4, in a special election on the question of forming a Harrison County Fire Protection District.

Election officials pointed out that there will be one polling place for the election—the Bethany Community Center. The precinct will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. next Tuesday.

Those who are eligible to vote in the election are registered voters in Bethany, Cypress and Sherman Townships as well as registered voters in Grant, Union, Jefferson and Fox Creek townships that are not currently in a fire district.

The County Clerk’s office will have extended hours from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday for absentee voting. The office will also be open until 5 p.m. each day up to the election. By Monday, the clerk’s office had received 41 applications for absentee ballots.

To avoid confusion, the county clerk’s office has sent letters to eligible voters living in a small wedge of territory between the Cainsville and Gilman City fire districts explaining that they will vote at the polling place in Bethany.

“We didn’t want them to think that they would go to their normal voting place to vote,” Reed said.

The proposed fire district would encompass the city of Bethany and surrounding territory that isn’t in any other fire district in the county.

The functions of the Bethany Fire Department would be absorbed by the proposed Harrison County Fire Protection District and residents living outside the city limits would no longer be charged for fire calls.

The fire district would be managed by an independent three-member board. The court order setting an election for the fire district came after the filing deadline for board members, making it necessary to elect the initial board by a write-in method. Three residents of the proposed district, John Gannan, former fire chief; Schuyler Cox, local business owner, and Johnathan Meyer, a local attorney—have announced their intention to run as write-in candidates for the board.

The candidate receiving the most votes would serve a six-year term on the board, the second highest would have a four-year term and the third highest would have an initial term of two years.

The fire district would initially be funded by a property tax of 30 cents on $100 assessed valuation. Under the state statute, the fire district would be able to establish a half-cent sales tax after the first year. The property tax would then be rolled back by 50% of the sales tax revenue collected in each year until it is eliminated, according to supporters of the fire district.

The property tax would generate about $150,000 in the first year. The replacement sales tax would increase the revenue to between $300,000 to $380,000.

The tax revenue would be used to build a new fire station and to purchase and maintain equipment. The City Council earlier approved a resolution, on a 3-2 vote with Mayor Patrick Miller casting the tie-breaking vote, to turn over the city’s fire trucks and equipment to the new fire district if the voters approve the referendum.

Complicating the issue was the decision made by the city to sell the Bethany Community Center and the fire station as a site for a new Dollar General Store. The city has proposed using the newly-acquired Cole & Myers building at 12th and Beekman Street as an interim fire station until a new one is built—either by the fire district or the city. The NTA Ambulance District has made an alternative offer to provide the north building on the NTA property as a temporary location for the fire station.

Mayor Miller said in an interview with Stewart Johnson on KAAN radio that the NTA offer “is under discussion with the City Council.”

“A drawback is that it isn’t a big enough building to house every piece of equipment that we have and we would lose access to the Cole building” during that time, Miller said in the radio interview.

Miller has come out forcefully against the proposed fire district in recent newspaper columns and the radio interview. He favors a subscription model under which persons living outside the city limits would pay an annual membership fee for fire protection. Casey Guernsey, who represents the city on economic development, said a similar subscription plan his company developed for Macon County has achieved a 70% membership rate among those living in areas outside the city limits.

On the other hand, fire district supporters said the property tax and later the sales tax would enable firemen to bring their fire trucks and equipment into compliance with National Fire Protection Agency standards and guidelines and would make it possible to re-establish a fulltime fire chief.

The city’s budget for fire protection has fallen to about $60,000 a year which, district supporters say.,isn’t sufficient to bring the equipment up to NFPA standards.

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