By DAVE SCHULTZ
Three separate entities — the city of Bluffton, Harrison Township, and Lancaster Township — will soon be voting on a proposal to create a new fire territory that will include the city.
Currently, there is a fire territory that includes the two townships, which pay a fee to the city for fire coverage. However, the Bluffton Fire Department needs more personnel and more equipment going forward, more than the city’s General Fund can handle.
So the proposal, which has been explained now in three public meetings, is going to a vote next Tuesday by the Bluffton Common Council. It’s worth noting that four of the five members of the council were present Monday night as the third public meeting on the new fire territory was held.
There were four primary speakers. Scott Mentzer, president of the Bluffton Common Council, and Bluffton Fire Chief Don Craig explained the need for an improved fire territory. Two men explained the legal and financial technicalities — Jeffrey Bellamy of the Thrasher, Buschmann, and Voelkey law firm in Indianapolis, and Greg Guerrettaz of Financial Solutions Group LLC based in Plainfield.
The fire department’s budget has gone from $1 million a year in 1999 to approximately $.5 million in 2023. Looking ahead, with additional personnel and apparatus needed, that is anticipated to go up to between $3.5 million and $4 million in the years ahead.
The fire department added five full-time firefighters to its roster in 2022, and the measure to increase funding through a new fire territory is to preserve those jobs and, potentially, add more. Firefighter Tim Frankin, who was in the audience, spoke of the advantage the additional personnel has given the department. No longer, he said, is he the only one driving a vehicle to a fire and waiting for someone else from the department to show up.
“These five people will save more people than I have in 20-plus years,” he said.
Staffing is a problem. Craig said a simple kitchen fire in a typical ranch-style house should have 10 firefighters present, according to federal and firefighting safety standards. A more involved house fire should have 15 firefighters present.
Right now, however, the BFD is finding it difficult to put six people on duty at the same time. Coupled with the department’s drop of paid on-call firefighters — there are only 19, leaving 13 vacancies — the situation needs to be rectified.
“That’s why we’re here,” Mentzer said.
Craig also noted the department’s aging vehicular fleet. The capital improvement plan presented Monday night said there was an immediate apparatus capital need of $3.4 million
Guerrettaz, who went through a financial impact study, said the estimated increases on property taxes would be just under 6 percent for Bluffton residents of Harrison Township and Bluffton residents of Lancaster Township. That’s for owner-occupied residences on less than one acre of land.
However, the property tax impact appears to be as high as 12 percent in the townships outside the city limits.
“It does impact the townships greater,” Guerrettaz said.
Guerrettaz had a disclaimer, though. Additional land or some sort of commercial use of the property could make a difference. “There is not a typical residential impact, because everyone’s different,” he said.
Nevertheless, he said, the amount is among the lowest, “if not the lowest,” in the area.
The idea behind the new territory, Bellamy said, is collaboration. “They just agree that it’s better to work together,” he said.
The Bluffton council will vote on the proposal March 21. The boards of the two townships will vote on it later.
Guerrettaz said the creation of the new fire territory should receive approval from the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance. “We’ve got a reasonable budget and a reasonable case,” he said. “We’re on the right course.”
However, Guerrettaz said, “I can’t guarantee anything.”
daves@news-banner.com
