Fire districts working to cover multiple counties have similar tax levies on the ballot

MONETT, Mo. — OzarksFirst is your Local Election Headquarters ahead of the August 6 election. We’re continuing to preview races you could see on your ballot.

Today, we’re looking at tax levy issues for the Monett Rural and Pierce City Fire Protection Districts.

For voters in their respective districts, both issues are called ‘Proposition 1’, and ask the public to decide the increase of 30 cents of every 100 dollars of assessed property value.

Officials from both districts say more tax revenue would allow them to expand their budgets, as well as update aging gear and parts of their fleet.

“With the rising costs that have occurred since [2013], we’re still operating on the same budget that with covered everything else. Prices of everything have went up fire trucks, homes, personal protective equipment and we are still trying to keep up, but for the future of the district, we’re going to have to start making some bigger purchases,” said Pierce City Assistant Fire Chief Nicholas Mercer. “This truck next to us was actually built in 1992. It has some mechanical stuff that we have to work on constantly.”

“Our average age of our fleet right now is 38 years old. It’s getting harder and harder to get parts for them, getting the maintenance and their costs and quite a bit to keep upkeep on,” said Monett Rural Assistant Fire Chief Matt Privett. “The reason for the tax rates is the common inflation of everything going on in the world from equipment, gear, trucks, maintenance costs and so on. We’re seeing about a 30-40% increase in some areas and even more in other areas.”

It’ll also let the district update and add to current structures, or build new stations.

“The other big push and reason for this is a station in Lawrence County,” Privett said. “We have no current stations in Lawrence County to cover our citizens up there.”

“Our station three in the village of Wentworth, that’s a welled area. There’s no public water system there. So by us being able to secure water supply out there, it can help lower ISO ratings,” said Mercer.

The volunteered-based districts said working in rural areas, plus call numbers have increased “wear and tear”.

“We serve about 4,000 people, which is hard to believe for me. We’re a town of 1,500, but the county has more people in it. So I don’t think a lot of people realize that we cover such a vast area,” said Mercer. “Our district covers 95 square miles and a 100% volunteer. Every year we’ve been seeing an increase, about 20-30% increase on the call volume. So the added calls equals more wear and tear, more miles, more hours.”

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