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South Jacksonville is considering raising rural fire subscriptions from $100 as costs climb and truck needs grow.<\/p>\n
Darren Iozia\/Journal-Courier<\/p>\n
South Jacksonville officials still are considering increasing fees for rural residents to subscribe to fire department services.<\/p>\n
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Fire Chief Rich Evans Jr. requested the fee hike to\u00a0help cover increasing costs after a March referendum to\u00a0establish a fire district failed to pass.<\/p>\n
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The current subscription fee is $100 a year.<\/p>\n
“The $100 fee has been in place for several years and, with the cost of operations increasing, we feel the need to raise the amount,” Evans previously has said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rural residents who live in South Jacksonville Fire Department’s coverage area can pay an annual fee that covers services at their address. Those who do not subscribe are billed for any services they receive.<\/p>\n
While subscriptions normally would have been renewed by now, the village is extending last year’s coverage period until a decision is made on a new fee.<\/p>\n
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Village Attorney Rob Cross recommended that the village provide a cost breakdown justifying the increase before approving an ordinance.<\/p>\n
“Having an ordinance with a stair-step approach for increasing fees is fine,” Cross said. “We do need to have something that shows where the number came from.”<\/p>\n
Subscriptions are voluntary, so there is no guarantee they would create additional funding, Evans said.<\/p>\n
Evans is seeking to raise it to $150 a year, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The village board is expected to continue discussions \u2014 including what the new fee would be \u2014\u00a0during its May 21 committee-of-the-whole meeting, with a potential vote in June.<\/p>\n
Rising costs mean the department has had increased needs for funding, Evans said.<\/p>\n
Among the department’s costs is the need to buy\u00a0a new ladder truck. The department’s current ladder truck no longer is usable because the interior of the ladder is rusting.<\/p>\n
Evans has been looking at options for a new truck and has been in talks with Jacksonville Fire Department to purchase its ladder truck after the department receives its new truck.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Evans told the board that the last price was $250,000 that would be covered in three payments over three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Village President Dick Samples wants to explore all options so the department can get the best price for a truck, especially after the village received two\u00a0GTSi bills for replacement of the department’s radios, he said.<\/p>\n
The radio replacement cost about $123,000.<\/p>\n
“That cost ate up the money we set aside for a fire truck,” Samples said. “My opinion is that the price is too high when we can get similar for less.”<\/p>\n
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Evans said he wants to make sure the department gets the right truck for the department and wants to get it done soon to prevent any issues with the village’s insurance ratings, which now is at a 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We did a lot of work to get our ISO to a 4 and I’m afraid it’s going to go right back up,” Evans said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Jacksonville is considering raising rural fire subscriptions from $100 as costs climb and truck needs grow. Darren…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,115,278],"class_list":["post-264658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}