Price of protection: Fees help fund volunteer fire departments

Nov. 05--BARREN COUNTY -- Even though it's not a tax, the membership dues, also known as subscriber fees, to fund volunteer fire departments with districts totally or partially within Barren County appear on the bills along with real-estate property taxes.

Why?

Tony Richey, chief of the Temple Hill Volunteer Fire Department for more than a dozen years and the chief of chiefs for the Barren County Fire Chiefs Association, said a state law changed that gave volunteer fire departments the opportunity to have their fire dues collected as part of the property tax bills, with approval from the local fiscal court.

"It's been a major, major plus for the fire departments; it's made them more financially stable, because now they can budget, they know about what their income's going to be per year," Richey said.

Most departments had a collection rate of only 20 percent to 40 percent at the time.

"It was as fair a system as they could come up with without it being a taxing district," he said.

The fiscal court in place at the time enacted an ordinance in 2003 for the county to do the billing for the annual membership charges for volunteer fire departments' districts to make it easier for them to collect them and help provide a more consistent revenue stream, with all of them coming in at approximately the same time, to assist with budgeting.

The ordinance set the amount at $25 for each mailbox address, and an administrative fee of 2.75 percent was allowed to be kept out just for the first year to aid with the startup expenses for the billing.

The ordinance provides the same penalty for unpaid subscriber fees as state and county taxes.

The ordinance was amended in 2008 to allow each department to set the amount of the fee, subject to approval of the Barren County Fire Chiefs Association. At that time the fee was changed to $35, the first increase in many years, Richey said, adding it was $25 for a long time before the billing method changed. The change in wording also prevents the entire ordinance from having to be amended each time the dollar figure changes, he said.

Some limited funding is also provided through the county government for volunteer fire departments.

Richey said the cost of one set of turnout gear -- the coat and pants -- plus gloves, boots, hood and helmet costs about $3,000, and a self-contained breathing apparatus is another $4,000 to $5,000.

Insurance for Temple Hill VFD's building and trucks is about $12,000 a year, and the pumper truck just purchased last year was $250,000, most of which was covered by a grant, but the department still had to spend $25,000 on it, Richey said.

"If it's 'red,' there's nothing cheap about it, except the labor," Richey said. "That's why it's so imperative to help protect the fire departments and make them stable, financially at least."

Barren County Judge-Executive Micheal Hale, who retired as assistant chief from the Glasgow Fire Department after 20 years and just this week became a member of the East Barren Volunteer Fire Department, said that $35 covers property owners for the year.

"To me, that's a pretty cheap insurance policy," he said.

Before, if people didn't pay the dues and a run to the property were necessary, they got billed $500.

"By [Kentucky Revised Statute], that was the amount you were allowed to charge," Richey said.

He said property owners get as much a bargain out of those $35 as anything they would purchase in a year, and the fee can be counted among tax deductions, because the volunteer departments are nonprofits.

"That's the best $35 you'll ever spend," he said.

This billing method makes things much simpler, Richey said, because it's difficult to keep volunteer firefighters as it is, and if he's going to take their time, he would rather it be for training or making calls and not organizing and working at so many fundraisers or preparing bills.

Plus, it would cost at least $1,000 for postage and supplies when they did their own annual billing, and trying to keep the billing list current was a constant challenge.

"We would get hundreds of letters back saying they had changed the address. It was just a nightmare," Richey said.

Certain types of addresses -- churches, schools and publicly owned utility companies -- were exempted by the ordinance. Because Glasgow, Cave City and Park City were already assessed a fire district tax, mailing addresses within those city limits were also waived from the separate fee on this tax bill, according to the original ordinance.

Park City City Clerk Bobby Bunnell said the city contributes to the Park City Volunteer Fire Department from the city's general fund, where the property tax revenue goes, mostly for insurance, trucks, and utilities.

Park City VFD Chief Ronnie Stinson, who's been with the department since 1990 and chief since 1995, said people inside the city limits there already pay property taxes to the city government, so they are not billed for the $35 flat amount for fire dues. The fire department's district extends beyond the city limits, though, so properties outside the city limits but inside the fire district still are billed for it.

"I couldn't make it without the city helping me," Stinson said, "because my district is so small."

Billing this way makes it a lot easier for them to survive, he added.

"It was getting to the point we were getting no fire dues hardly," Stinson said.

The older generations would pay their dues, and sometimes extra, but as the population of younger generations grew, fewer and fewer paid, he said.

An attempt to reach Cave City VFD Chief Kevin Jandt on Wednesday afternoon was unsuccessful, but Stinson said Cave City is set up similarly.

Having a reliable revenue stream means personal equipment, trucks and training are more up to date, and that means lower homeowners' insurance rates, too, Richey said.

"[The current billing method] has been a major asset to the county, as far as the public, and that's who we serve," he said. "We don't make any money on it; it just helps the public more than anybody would ever realize."

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