BENTONVILLE -- The Beaver Lake Volunteer Fire Department plans to seek a $75 increase in annual dues, a year after voters rejected a larger request.
Fire Chief Jon Whisenant said the department will propose a scaled-back version of the plan it proposed last year.
Volunteer fire departments
There are 27 fire departments in Benton County with six being full-time departments and the remaining 21 a mixture of paid and volunteer firefighters or all-volunteer departments.
Source: Staff Report
"This year we're asking for a $75 increase in the annual dues," Whisenant said of the increase, which would double the current dues to $150. "To put that into perspective, that's $12.50 per month or 41 cents per day."
The increase would allow the department to have two full-time firefighters on duty 24 hours a day, Whisenant said. In addition to the direct cost of having two full-time firefighters on duty, the department would have to cover some costs to provide sleeping quarters in the fire station.
Whisenant said the department's call volume has spiked this year. Six of the 36 calls the department received last year between Jan. 1 and early February were fire calls. This year the department has had 67 calls, with 29 of those being fire calls. For all of 2016, the department responded to 550 calls and is on pace to exceed 600 this year.
"The need for manpower is the real issue," he said. "Our volunteers are no longer adequate to meet our needs."
Marc Trollinger, Benton County's fire marshal, said volunteer fire departments everywhere are struggling to maintain an adequate number of volunteers or to develop some combination of paid firefighters and volunteers.
"The growing population of this area increases the call volume," Trollinger said. "We're real busy right now because we're also in a drought. The busier we are, the number of volunteers who you were able to count on goes down. People run out of time, you wear them out or they just move on."
The Beaver Lake Fire Department assesses dues on homes and businesses. The dues are collected through the annual property tax statements. According to Melsine Carter with the Benton County Collector's Office, the department's dues generated $174,398 in 2016.
The department's last increase in annual dues was approved by voters in 2007, Whisenant said, when the dues were increased from $40 to $75.
"That was meant to last five years, and we've now gone 10 years," he said.
The Quorum Court approved Thursday calling for a July 11 special election.
In a special July 12 election district voters rejected a proposed $225 increase in annual dues that would have allowed the department to hire three full-time firefighters and make the necessary facility improvements. That plan was voted down with 289 votes (45 percent) in favor and 347 votes (55 percent against).
Whisenant said the department plans to campaign for the issue more this year. He said that will begin with a 10 a.m. meeting Feb. 25 at the department's Cypress Lane fire station.
"We thought we did a good job last time, but we're going to do more," he said. "We've gotten a renewed push from a lot of area residents willing to help us. The POA boards are going to take the information and include it in their newsletters and mailers. We do want a large turnout. I would like to see what the people of the district really think."
NW News on 02/18/2017