SUNRISE BEACH, Mo. — The first of four town hall meetings dealing with a proposed tax levy increase for Sunrise Beach Fire Protection District was held last night at the district’s headquarters.
Voters will decide on the Tuesday, Aug. 6 election ballot whether to approve or deny the levy increase.
“This is all about making the community safer by putting us in a position to do the best job we can do,” Sunrise Beach Fire Chief Dennis Reilly said. “Sometimes I can’t sleep at night when I think about someone saying their child, or mother or aunt is inside a burning home. I want to be able to say that we’ve done everything we can do to save them.”
Currently the district has five fire houses and three full-time firefighters. If one of those firefighters is sick or on vacation and a 911 fire call comes in, the district only has two firefighters on duty to answer the call. According to Reilly, in this scenario, one firefighter would operate the hose and one would run the equipment, but no one would be available to perform a rescue, if needed, until a volunteer firefighter reached the scene.
“In the first critical minutes of a fire, our current minimum staffing will put you and your firefighters lives in greater danger,” Reilly said.
SBFPD is a combination district, serving the community with mostly volunteer firefighters. However, during the busy summer season many volunteers have restricted availability.
In a recent incident, the district was called to a residential fire on Grey Fox Road. When units arrived on the scene, they found a fire so hot that it nearly spread to two nearby homes.
According to Reilly, “This was a fire where we were down to our minimum: two firefighters. Thank goodness we happened to have one of our volunteers in the fire house that night.
“Our organization feels very strongly that our community’s safety deserves more than us just being lucky when it comes to our staffing,” he concluded.
According to Reilly, extensive research has proven that the most effective deployment to the scene of an emergency is four people: one to supervise, one to run the equipment, one to operate the hose and one to rescue.
“This research has found four people are significantly more effective at locating and saving victims and putting out the fire,” he said. “The increase in staffing that this levy hike will generate should allow the district to have four firefighters on duty approximately 310 days per year, and we will never fall below three on duty at any time.” Reilly said such a staffing situation would be a vast improvement over the current one.
If the levy is approved, it would take effect in January 2014. The seven-cent increase has been projected to bring approximately $223,041 per year in additional revenues to the district. Of that money, $137,579.58 would be used to hire additional firefighters.
The new tax levy would fund an additional career firefighter, for all three 24-hour shifts, 365 days a year. The ballot describes the levy as a 14-cent initiative, but similar to school board initiatives, seven cents of this levy are taxes that are already being paid. The actual tax increase would be seven cents.
In real dollars, if the levy increase passes, Sunrise Beach residential taxes would increase by $13.30 per year, per $100,000 of a home’s market value.
“I looked at the community and tried [to determine] what was the minimal amount of funding that we needed to function. And that is what is on the ballot,” Reilly said.
The district has never sought an operating levy. Historically the levies have been for capital funding bonds.
In 1996 a $2.3 million bond issue was approved by voters in the district. These bonds will be paid out in 2016. With them, the district has purchased three tankers, one rescue truck and constructed four, small fire houses.
In 2007 a $6.8 million bond issue was approved. These bonds will expire in 2027. With this bond money, the district has purchased three engines and one aerial, constructed a headquarters building and the No. 2 fire station and expanded the No. 1 fire station, and paid for the training building and burn tower.
The district plans to invest a portion of the remaining 1996 bond funds into apparatus and the building maintenance account. The rest will be put into savings to fund future purchases, as needed. The cost of a new aerial apparatus could be as high as $1.5 million. If an engine is funded by a bond, the interest alone can be more than $40,000 per year. A few of the district’s apparatus are more than 20 years old; national standards suggest they should be replaced in the 12–15 year range.
“I think they are still road-worthy, but the maintenance will extend their life,” Reilly said. He estimates the district will pay a total of $7 million in interest over the life of its current bonds, slated to be paid in 2028. After studying district demographics, Reilly says the district could probably do away with seven pieces of apparatus.
Reilly expects the district’s ISO rating to be evaluated in the next six months, which could result in a reduction of insurance costs for property owners in the district.
The district hired Reilly in 2012. He will enter his 40th year in the fire service next February. Since coming to Sunrise Beach, he has significantly increased firefighter training. In June 2013 SBFPD firefighters underwent 66 trainings in a 30-day period. Trainings included self-contained breathing apparatus skills, firefighter rescue, hose advancement, boat operations, and pump operations. Reilly conducts most of the trainings himself, but he also sends firefighters to other district trainings as well.
According to Reilly, fires have changed dramatically over the last 20 years. While they used to be fueled mainly by natural materials, most of the material in a modern fire is plastic.
“Every fire nowadays is full of hazardous materials. This causes much more smoke and significantly decreases the amount of time it takes for the contents to reach 2,000 degrees. We have to be able to get in there much faster with a higher flow rate, with enough firefighters to put the fire out and save lives and property,” Reilly said.
“People ask why we need more money, and I say, ‘1,700 people die in fires every year in America. That is five people a day, and that is too many,’” Reilly said.
For more information about the district or the proposed levy increase, call Reilly at 573-374-4411.
