Questions raised about Shawswick, Guthrie Fire Territory
LAWRENCE COUNTY - The Shawswick Township VFD served as the venue for a second public hearing Monday night on the proposed fire territory in Shawswick and Guthrie townships.
The Shawswick Township Advisory Board, Guthrie Township Advisory Board, representatives from Reedy Financial Group P.C. and Shawswick Township Trustee Millard Jones presented information about the proposed fire territory to those in attendance, answered questions about its tax impacts and discussed the wide range of advantages that residents can benefit from if the territory is enacted.
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Several questions were brought forward by the public throughout the public hearing. These questions centered on the tax impacts of the fire territory, higher property taxes, the area's Insurance Services Organization (ISO) fire protection rating and the department's ambulance service coverage, among others.
Improving ambulance services
The fire territory has been proposed in a bid to improve fire protection services in Guthrie and Shawswick townships as well as Lawrence County. Another focus of the endeavor is to expand ambulance services within the county.
Shawswick VFD Fire Chief Bob Brown listed the reasons behind the fire territory's push to expand ambulance services not only in Guthrie and Shawswick townships but the rest of the county at large.
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"The issue is not with the county, it is actually with both hospitals requiring ambulances to transfer patients to bigger hospitals. That's where the shortage of ambulances comes into effect. I'm not blaming the county commissioners for the shortfalls of those ambulance services," Brown said. "In fact, every county in Indiana is having this issue. The problem is that they are transferring all patients to Bloomington, Methodist or Louisville, wherever they can find a bed. They are then gone for hours at a time and that leaves this county short."
If the fire territory is eventually established, the proposed debt fund will assist in purchasing an additional ambulance to serve the townships and the county. This ambulance will coordinate with the two other ambulance providers in Lawrence County to develop a more efficient, streamlined ambulance service. The new ambulance will be certified as a 911 BLS transport ambulance service.
Brown mentioned that the number of runs the Shawswick VFD responds to has been steadily increasing every year, highlighting the urgency behind bolstering ambulance capabilities to meet the rising demands.
The fire department responded to a total of 703 calls last year compared to 647 the year before. In 2019, the department went on 550 runs.
Reasons for proposed fire territory
As things currently stand, both townships receive property tax dollars in exchange for fire protection from the Shawswick VFD. The fire department has been struggling to keep up with the rising equipment costs while simultaneously offering sufficient fire protection services in recent years.
The fire territory has been proposed to gain adequate funding to continue offering essential fire protection services in both townships. However, this would have an impact on the property tax rate that residents in each township must pay.
This increase is required to achieve enough funding to operate the Shawswick VFD's fire station with four full-time firefighters and an EMT. They will be working 12 and 24-hour shifts. There will still be a large number of volunteer firefighters that will be available to assist when needed as well.
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Shawswick VFD Training Chief Austin Brown described the process the volunteer firefighters follow from the moment they first receive a 911 dispatch call to arriving on the scene to provide aid.
"Being a volunteer department, whenever we get a call, sometimes it's one or two minutes between the dispatch getting all of their information to the fire department. They give the fire department two minutes to answer that call," Brown said. "Then you're looking at an average of a five to seven-minute response time at the fire station. That's if volunteers are available to respond. It may be longer depending on where volunteers live. Then you're looking at two to three minutes to get all of your gear, get on the truck and get out of the station."
At the present moment, the volunteers must overcome communication and logistical hurdles depending on the location of the emergency and if any volunteers are available to respond.
"So by the time we get a dispatch to the time we get out of the station, it could very easily be anywhere from 10 to 12 minutes," he said. "Then you're looking at where in the county you have to respond. There's a chance it could be down the road but it also may be across the township so you're looking at a 10 to 15 minute response time. So you're already in half an hour from the time 911 gets dialed to the time we're arriving on scene."
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Brown also stressed the significance of being able to respond to emergency calls as quickly as possible. Time is of the utmost importance when responding to any type of emergency, whether the situation requires an EMS or fire assistance. Brown said he believes the fire territory will greatly improve the department's response time.
"With modern construction, fire doubles in size every 30 seconds," he said. "For EMS calls, if someone is not breathing or is unresponsive, your brain has four to six minutes before the lack of oxygen starts doing damage. So having guys on station and being ready to respond is going to be a huge benefit to the public."
Shawswick Township Trustee Millard Jones expressed his support for the fire territory.
"We don't want to raise your taxes. That's not what we're here for but it is a necessity. In the last six years, this building we're sitting in was built and we never raised taxes at all," Jones said. "It is all paid for. Our firemen and women are doing their best to protect this township. So we decided six years ago that we needed a new fire department. If you walk into this fire department, you should be proud of what they've done out here. It did not change taxes, not one cent. Now there will be an increase because there's more to it. It is reaching out farther."
Proposed budget & tax changes
The budget for the proposed fire territory's general fund stands at $673,290 while the levy is $630,000. The projected tax rate is 0.2493.
The property tax rate is based on the assessed value for 2022. Bedford taxpayers will not be impacted by any proposed tax changes.
The budget for the cumulative fire fund is $78,000 and the levy is $84,139 with a projected tax rate of 0.0333. The debt fund budget is $82,800, the levy is $89,872 and the projected tax rate is 0.0356.
The total budget comes out to $834,090. As for the combined tax levy, it stands at $804,011. Lastly, the total projected tax rate is 0.3182.
The general fund will pay for all operational costs. The cumulative fire fund will cover any capital expenses that may be incurred. The debt fund will be used to compensate for one-time capital expenses. This will help to lower the tax rate and provide more time for the townships to cover the related costs over an extended period of several years.
Below is a breakdown of the projected taxpayer monthly impact:
Residential
$50,000 Assessed Value Shawswick Twp. $1.76 Guthrie Twp. $1.95
$100,000 Assessed Value Shawswick Twp. $5.76 Guthrie Twp. $6.40
$150,000 Assessed Value Shawswick Twp. $11.47 Guthrie Twp. $12.75
Agriculture
$100,0000 Assessed Value Shawswick Twp. $17.57 Guthrie Twp. $19.54
$200,000 Assessed Value Shawswick Twp. $35.15 Guthrie Twp. $39.08
$250,000 Assessed Value Shawswick Twp. $43,93 Guthrie Twp. $48.86
Commercial
$100,000 Assessed Value Shawswick Twp. $17.57 Guthrie Twp. $19.54
$200,000 Assessed Value Shawswick Twp. $35.15 Guthrie Twp. $39.08
$300,000 Assessed Value Shawswick Twp. $52.72 Guthrie Twp. $58.63
One final public hearing is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, March 21 at the Shawswick Township VFD, located at 1327 Sunny Acres Drive in Bedford.
After all three public hearings have taken place, each advisory board will hold a vote to decide if it is going to implement the fire protection territory. If the measure is approved, the designated area will not become active until Jan. 1, 2023.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: Fire territory for Shawswick, Guthrie townships questioned at hearing
