Local fire departments hopeful for new tax resolution: old gear, old trucks, and more

Expired protective equipment for firefighters. Decades-old fire trucks, one with more than 200,000 miles. Volunteer firefighters who haven’tbeen able to take basic training courses.

This is what the Kildare Volunteer Fire Department works with on a day-to-day basis.

The state of affairs isn’t uncommon at other fire departments across the area, and it’s something Kay County voters may be able to change through a proposed sales tax resolution, set to appear on the ballot either in late 2022 or early 2023.

“What we’re looking at is trying to better serve the residents of Kay County through better training, better equipment,” said Travis Harris, the department’s chief. “Are we doing the job now? We’re getting by. But there’s always room to improve.”

The Kay County Public Safety Association, comprised of officials from 13 county fire departments, is asking voters to approve a 1/3 cent sales tax levy that would increase funding for training and fire equipment purchases at each of the participating departments.

The tax also would increase funding for the county’s four ambulance services. Participating fire departments include Blackwell, Ponca City, Braman, Newkirk, Tonkawa and other rural agencies.

As proposed, the tax would last six years, Harris said.

Officials estimate that each of the participating departments would receive roughly $600,000 over the tax’s lifespan, based off 2022 sales tax returns.

Additional funding would go toward ambulance services.

After the first six years, voters could decide whether to extend or end the tax.

If the resolution is approved, Kay County would join counties across the state that have increased funding for municipal and rural emergency response agencies.

Nearby Garfield, Grant and Noble counties are among those with taxes supporting fire protection.

“I’ve been pushing on this since Garfield County got theirs in the mid-to-late ‘90s, to get some funding for us,” Harris said. “We’ve just never gotten far enough to get this going. Now, I think we’ve gotten a lot on board.”

‘DOING THE BEST WE CAN’

With an annual budget of roughly $20,000, the Kildare Fire Department pays for fuel, insurance and maintenance of equipment.

But updating equipment is challenging with limited funds, Harris said. The average age of the Kildare Fire Department’s trucks is 29 years, Harris said. The oldest truck dates to 1977, and its newest dates to 2006. At the Blackwell Fire Department, the average age is roughly 13, said Fire Chief Cory Hanebrink.

Though the two departments’ trucks are still running, some are reaching the end of their useful lives, Hanebrink said.

“There’s a point when you have to assess what it’s costing annually to keep it running versus what it costs to buy a new one,” Hanebrink said.

While the reliability of aging trucks is a concern, Harris said, the biggest concern is that the gear firefighters wear while battling blazes is getting too old to use.

Most of the Kildare department’s sets of bunker gear at least 12 years old, two years past the life expectancy set by the National Fire Protection Association, according to the agency’s guidelines. Today, a complete set of bunker gear costs roughly $3,000.

“We don’t have the budget,” Harris said. “We can’t replace everyone’s gear. We’re doing the best we can.”

The importance of that equipment can’t be understated, Blackwell Fire Chief Cory Hanebrink said.

“Your firemen have to rely on that piece of equipment for their life safety,” Hanebrink said. “If that apparatus lays down when they’re in the middle of a fire, it could cost their life and their partner’s life.”

Training is another area in which the chiefs said they hope to invest. At Kildare, some volunteers still haven’t been able to take firefighter training courses, in part, because of the cost to attend training, Harris said.

At Blackwell, Hanebrink regularly sends firefighters to training courses, with several classes slated for the fall.

But the department could use more, he said.

“We are a young department,” Hanebrink said. “We’re training experience now. If you don’t have experience, you rely on training. If you don’t have the training, what do you have to rely on? You can’t train enough for a job that can kill you.”

TAX STRUCTURE

Once collected by the state, sales tax revenue would be given to two separate boards.

The Kay County Public Safety Association would oversee funding for fire departments, while another yet-to-be-formed board would oversee funding for ambulance services.

Once fire departments begin collecting funds, their first job will be to show their worth, Harris said.

“If it passes, we’ve got to prove ourselves to the people that we’re managing that money properly,” Harris said.

Harris and Hanebrink said having additional funds from the tax would allow them to apply for – and have a higher likelihood of securing – federal grants to purchase new equipment and training.

Fire departments across the nation are applying for partnership-style grants, where a fire department agrees to pay part of the cost of a project while the granting party pays the rest.

The greater the percentage a fire department can pay, the more likely the department will be to get the grant, Hanebrink said.

“My intentions are to continue to look for funding opportunities to make our money go farther,”

Hanebrink said. The tax proposition comes as Americans face high levels of inflation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Harris said he’s aware that some voters may not want to pay more in taxes, but adds that one can’t put a price on safety.

“A lot of the people I’ve talked to see the need and have been very supportive of that, having a tax,” Harris said.

“A better-trained and equipped firefighter is a safe firefighter to make entry, to be able to save lives and to protect property.”