Rural Fire Protection District voter information

Informational Meeting

Tuesday, March 30 • 7 p.m.

Community Center in Community Park
1309 S. Main, Jacksonville, IL 62650

Attendance limited to 75 people

Masks and social distancing required

What’s being proposed?

It is being proposed on the April 6 consolidated election to establish a rural fire protection district to serve the rural areas surrounding Jacksonville.

Why is it being proposed?

Several challenges in the rural community in recent years have been brought to the attention of the Jacksonville fire dept.

• Inconsistency’s and/or non-existence of emergency services in the rural community

• Increasing cost for fire protection and

increasing insurance rates

• No organized funding for the provision of life safety issues, or infrastructure improvements supporting fire protection.

Goals of the proposed district:

• Provides for self-governance and a focal point of responsibility.

• The community within the district governs it and has a voice in the decision making.

• Currently the rural community has no decision making power under the subscription system.

• Consistent and stable budget for the funding of emergency response and planning for public safety with the sole purpose of improving fire protection.

• Funding for improving infrastructure, one of the goals being to improve the ISO rating resulting in a reduction of insurance rates.

• The district will concentrate on the sole mission of the provision of fire protection, EMS and rescue services. Improving the outcome of patients, quickly rescue trapped victims.

• Reduced response times, reduce and prevent the loss of life and property damage.

• To enhance services provided to the rural areas surrounding Jacksonville. Services to be provided by a full-time/career department responding not only for Fire protection but also Emergency Medical services at the paramedic level and technical rescue services.

What will it Cost?

The proposed district will have a tax rate of .4% or $4 per every $1,000 dollars of assessed value. A parcel with a fair cash value of $150,000 would have an assessed value of $50,000, 4 X 50 = $200 dollars annually. How this affects individual parcel is dependent on the parcel and the net taxable value” of that parcel, not the fair market value.

Fire District will solve several issues:

• All living in the district will share the cost of fire protection equally

• There will be no gray areas within the district, which is currently an issue with subscriber system

• Provides for self-governance and a focal point of responsibility.

• Consistent and stable budget for the fire district will allow the department to implement long range planning and purchases for the sole purpose of improving fire protection in the proposed district.

• Provide additional emergency services to the rural community it currently lacks.

Fact:

The district, if established, is a separate entity apart from the City. It will be self-govern by a committee of trustees who reside in the district. An agreement between the District and the City will establish what is considered a paper district with the City providing the extension of services into the district in exchange for funding to cover the costs involved.

With approximately $260,000.00 in annual funding, approximately 40% to 45% will be available for reinvestment back into the district designated for infrastructure improvement projects. No other district has provision to reinvests funding back into the proposed district. With infrastructure improvements and improving ISO rating in the rural community will reduce the insurance costs within the proposed district, it is estimated the costs saving could equal the cost of the district, but this is would be difficult to compile the data necessary at this point to make a reasonable assumption as to what the cost savings would actually be. It is based solely on what the average insurance cost savings would be if the rural area improved its ISO rating one step, currently an 8 to a 7.

The Jacksonville Fire Department has taken the role of consultants with offering direction to those concern citizens as to how to make those improvements. The City of Jacksonville has played no role in the establishment of a fire protection district and its only input has been with establishing some of the border areas around its corporate limits, taking into account future expansion of the City. Some of the other issues the City has faced are the increasing cost of providing services outside the City, less than 25% of the rural population in the proposed district is funding our rural protection services.

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