By DAVE SCHULTZ
Some of the cost of firefighting in the city of Bluffton is being paid in a different way, adding $5.09 to the utility bills of most residential water customers in the city.
That amount is considered a fire protection fee and was added to this past month’s bills to support the city’s water utility.
The money, which is charged to all customers of the Bluffton Utilities water service, replaces a “hydrant fee” that the Bluffton Fire Department had to pay to the city’s water utility for water service. The money paid in that “hydrant fee” — $370,000 per year — did not support the day-to-day operation of the Bluffton Fire Department. It was apparently put in place years ago to pay for the water infrastructure necessary to provide fire service, not the fire service itself.
“Historically, the water system was designed and built for fire protection, not drinking water,” Mayor John Whicker said in an interview last week.
The city has in hand a seven-page question and answer document that explains why the change was necessary. Scott Mentzer, president of the Common Council, worked on that Q&A document with the BakerTilly municipal financing firm.
Roger Thornton, whose resignations from the Bluffton Common Council and Board of Public Works and Safety officially becomes effective Nov. 30, has studied the fire protection funding issues. He explains that the $5.09 fee evens the support for the water utility and the fire service.
When the Fire Department — with a budget in the property tax-based General Fund — paid money into the Water Department, it meant that entities that don’t pay property taxes — churches, schools, and some residential operations, for instance — were water users but were not supporting the Water Department and its task to make sure the firefighting infrastructure was in place. When the Fire Department needs water to fight a fire, he said, “It needs a lot of water very quickly.”
Thornton adds that real estate parcels in tax increment financing districts within the city also are not directly supporting the Fire Department’s budget, because the property taxes paid by parcels in the TIF go to the TIF District and not to the city’s General Fund.
“That $370,000 flowed from the Fire Department’s budget to the city’s water utility,” Whicker said. “Now it’s plugged into the city utilities bill as fire protection. It’s the same money.”
The water rates change was approved this summer prior to the adoption of the city’s 2003 budget.
The $5.09 rate for fire protection is based on the standard 5/8-inch meter, which is in place for most single-family residences in the city. The rate goes up along with the size of the meter. The highest rate in the ordinance is $254.66 for a 6-inch meter.
daves@news-banner.com
