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The
Wake Forest town commissioners and the
board of directors of the Wake Forest
Fire Department will hold a joint
meeting Tuesday, June 12, at 7 p.m. in
town hall to discuss the fire
department’s needs.
Fire Chief Jerry Swift
requested $2.9 million in the budget for
the 2007-2008 fiscal year to cover the
costs of 21 new positions and pay for a
$600,000 pumper/ladder truck for the
planned Forestville Road fire station.
Swift has also asked for
$4.3 million for land, fire station
construction and equipment for the two
other stations he says the department
will need in the next three years.
Town Manager Mark Williams’
proposed budget -- which the town board
did not alter at its budget work session
– includes 10 cents of the property tax
rate of 54 cents for the fire
department. That will yield about $2.1
million for operations, $800,000 short
of Swift’s request.
Williams also did not
include any of the capital expense funds
Swift asked for in the five-year Capital
Improvements Plan.
Williams said the tax rate
would have to rise by 4 cents to fully
fund Swift’s operating request and by 8
cents for the capital expenses.
However, he has also noted
there will be a county-wide property
revaluation in 2008, and the town will
adjust its tax rate then and could more
easily accommodate the fire department’s
requests.
Along with the Forestville
Road station, the fire department wants
to build a station on the west side of
town near Capital Boulevard and on the
east side of town along Wait Avenue
(N.C. 98). Swift’s goal is to place
stations for a response time of five
minutes or less. Wake Forest has 25
square miles in its corporate limits,
and Swift says the rule of thumb for
response is a station for every five
square miles.
This meeting will be open to
the public but it will not be televised. |
