TRANQUILLITY — A Fresno County Fire Protection District plan to add three fire stations and firefighters by charging property owners a parcel fee has failed, district officials confirmed Wednesday night.
Of those who returned their mail-in ballots, 73% were against the plan. About 30% of roughly 50,000 parcel owners in the district voted. A landowner got one vote for each parcel.
A landowner with one home was being asked to pay about $78 annually for new fire stations and professionally trained firefighters on the district’s fringe, near Reedley, Prather and Panoche.
The amount of the fee would have depended on how the property is used. Commercial, industrial, agricultural landowners and those with apartment complexes would have paid a different fee than residential landowners.
By placing new stations closer to the district’s outskirts, existing fire crews would travel shorter distances to their calls, improving response times throughout the district.
Despite the setback, Keith Larkin, the district’s chief, said the ability to meet with citizens during the campaign was encouraging.
“We needed to explain to the public the service needs of this department,” he said.
He also pledged that the district is “continuing to go forward.”
Opponents of the proposed fee said they were concerned about the assessment being permanent under the district’s plan. Others said they were worried that not all property owners received ballots.
Andrea Walls of Prather, who opposed the plan, said she wants to see records for the amount of money the district spent on the assessment campaign.
Caruthers resident Russel Efird, a former fire district board member, said the board should have shown better judgment. He said consultants who surveyed voter attitudes said the proposal would be defeated.
That survey, released in February, showed that 41.4% of residents would support a $75 assessment. But, in a separate question, the same survey indicated that nearly 60% of residents would support additional firefighters and equipment to reduce response times.
“If it comes up this resoundingly defeated, it shows that what you were asking … was not supported by a majority of the fire district,” Efird told the board Wednesday night.
The district is under contract with Cal Fire and has an annual budget of about $18.5 million, funded mostly through property taxes. With the assessment, the district had expected to raise an additional $3 million annually.
West Coast 911 fire news source – Story written by Fresno Bee
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