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“I’ve
been to three meetings with the county,
and at the last meeting I was told the
county would not fund any additional
personnel, apparatus or fire stations in
Wake Forest,” Fire Chief Jerry Swift
told the board of directors for the
independent Wake Forest Fire Department
Tuesday night.
“We do not fit into Wake
County’s long-term plan. It’s up in the
air what money we’re going to get from
the county.”
The problem is the
department’s success. “We’re one of the
most fortunate fire companies in the
county now,” Swift said, with two
stations, paid and volunteer
firefighters, 24-hour coverage and an
array of equipment.
Swift said that for the last
two years Wake County has provided
$309,000 to the department. He had asked
for $600,000 from the county to help
fund additional personnel. “They are not
going to fund that. We’ll be luck to get
what we got last year.”
The department contracts
with both the county and the town to
provide fire service to a substantial
swath of northern Wake County. There is
a 10-cent fire tax on the property tax
rate in unincorporated areas, and the
town has dedicated 10 cents of its
54-cent property tax rate to the fire
department.
The town paid $1.7 million
for fire protection this fiscal year.
The rub comes from the
department’s plans for new fire
stations, new personnel and new
apparatus to meet the needs of the
town’s continued rapid growth.
In February the fire
department board approved Swift’s
$3.6-million operating budget, which is
a 42 percent increase over this year’s.
The increase is largely to cover 21
additional paid personnel. The
department now has 35 volunteers, eight
paid part-time firefighters and 32 paid
staff in its two stations.
The town will be asked for
$2.9 million, about 77 percent of the
total.
Even if the town’s taxable
property has reached $1.9 billion as
Town Manager Mark Williams said in
December, the 10 cents would yield $1.9
million, a million shy of Swift’s
request.
In addition, Swift says the
department needs $1.65 million in the
coming fiscal year to purchase land and
equipment for new fire stations. He is
asking for a total of $4.3 over the next
three fiscal years for the three
stations and equipment. The $1.65
million translates to about 8 cents on
the town’s tax rate, Williams said
during a discussion of the Capital
Improvements Plan earlier this month.
Williams has not included
the fire department capital request in
the CIP and says the town needs more
discussion with the fire chief and
board.
Swift wants the town to
spend about $600,000 on a Quint, a
pumper truck with a ladder that would be
based at the future Forestville Road
station to fight fires in the dense
homes and apartments in Heritage and
other areas. He wants the county to fund
3,000-gallon pumper truck that would
carry water to rural subdivisions to
knock down flames quickly.
Tuesday night Swift said he
had already spoken with Finance Director
Aileen Staples about the county’s
decision – “She said that was a big
concern” – and will be meeting soon with
her and Williams to discuss the
situation.
The goal in fire protection
is a five-minute response time, which
translates to a fire station for every
five to six miles of a town’s area. Cary
has 42 square miles and seven fire
stations, Swift said. Wake Forest has
25-plus square miles and two fire
stations. The three being planned now
would meet the town’s current size.
The fire department has an
option to purchase 4 acres at 1616
Forestville Road owned by Joel Keith, a
former fire department director. Last
week the town annexed the land and
Rolesville Realty, acting for the fire
department, has applied to the town to
rezone it for use as a fire station.
“We’re going to save the
town some money and use that house,”
Swift said. There is a brick ranch house
on the property that can be used as a
fire station with the addition of a shed
or barn for the truck. Swift said he
wants to open the station this year,
moving a truck from Station #1 and
transferring some current personnel.
The board and Swift are
still trying to decide the location for
the other stations. Swift said he was
glad he had not chosen a Wait Avenue
site near Bishop’s Grant because he
later learned of the town’s swap with
Rolesville for future growth area. The
town’s area now stretches to Averette
Road and a large tract at Averette and
N.C. 98, farther east from Austin Creek
subdivision, has been reportedly sold
for development. With the development
plans for tracts along Oak Grove Church
Road and Gilcrest Farm Road, Swift is
now of a mind to place a station near
the N.C. 98 and Averette Road
intersection.
On the west side of town,
the board may wait for the promised
donation of land on the old
Parker-Hannifin site and put up a
temporary station somewhere along the
Capital Boulevard corridor. Plans to
turn Capital into a limited-access
freeway will have a bearing because of
access east and west, and the board
Tuesday night also talked about the
possibility of asking the seminary for a
reduced price on some land it owns.
The fire department needs to
move as quickly as possible to provide a
western station because of the large
number of houses in county subdivisions,
Swift said. He has been working with the
homeowners’ associations for Waterfall
and other subdivisions along Thompson
Mill Road, and he will soon meet with
the homeowners in Fairlake subdivision
on Purnell Road about fire protection.
The home owners are
supporting his request to the county for
a 3,000-gallon pumper/tanker that could
provide a quick response in county
subdivisions without fire hydrants.
Swift will make presentation
in May to the county fire commission,
pleading for the truck. “We’ve got a lot
of community support.”
(See the April 18 and Feb.
14 issues of the Gazette for the
complete articles about the fire
department’s operating budget and
capital expense request.) |
