January 17, 2007

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Late in the afternoon of the annual planning retreat, they also agreed Commissioner Frank Drake should introduce a motion this month to study imposing an impact fee on new construction that would pay for fire station construction and other capital costs.

            Fire Chief Jerry Swift, who was at the retreat, said Tuesday, “I think it went great.” He said there are pros and cons to the issues facing the department, “but I think overall it’s a positive outcome.”

            Whether or not it incorporates the department, the town will face an escalation in the costs of the fire department in the next few years.

            For next year Swift is asking for almost three-quarters of a million additional dollars – $740,115 – from the town for 20 new positions: 12 firefighters for the new ladder truck, six firefighters to supplement staffing on two engines, a deputy fire chief and a training chief.

            This is aside from the three fire stations Swift says are needed, one each on the west, east and south sides of town. (For more about the future stations, see the following article in this week’s edition.)

            The town pays about 85 percent of the fire department’s $2.5-million budget, guaranteeing it will receive 10 cents of the 54-cent property tax rate. The rest of the budget comes from the 10-cent fire tax on property the county imposes in the fire district outside the town limits.

            Commissioner Stephen Barrington recalled how then-Fire Chief Jimmy Keith had asked for the 10 cents. “He told us that at ten cents with the growth that would take care of their future needs. Here we are at ten cents but more money is needed.”

            “I don’t think any of us actually believed it would be good for more than a year or two,” Mayor Vivian Jones said.

            “I did,” Commissioner David Camacho said.

            Swift assured the town commissioners the members of the fire department’s board back a transition to the town.

            The reason is managing the growth in the department. “Our budget right now is two and a half million. That’s a lot of funds for us to manage. If it does not come under the town’s control, we’re going to need the same management people you have in human resources and finance,” Swift said.

            “If you’re already funding us that much, it seems like you would want accountability for that money. Being under the town would give us that accountability.”

            Other reasons Swift listed were state retirement benefits for paid staff, a more stable governing body with employees answering to only one supervisor and better coordination of strategic and emergency plans.

             “I personally don’t think I could consider it without knowing what it would cost us,” Jones said.

            Camacho and Commissioner Frank Drake said they want to know what the benefits of the merger would be, and Commissioner Velma Boyd-Lawson said she wanted the study done before talking with the fire department’s board of directors because “I don’t have enough information to discuss this.”

            When other municipalities have made a fire department part of the town, Town Manager Mark Williams said, “The cost of providing services has gone up.” That was not necessarily because of the conversion but because the incorporated department was “going to a higher level of service” that comes from more paid personnel who can respond immediately.

            “So one of the things we get for more money is a faster response time,” Drake said.

            “That’s also one of the arguments for the fire stations,” Williams said.

            Williams said he ask the League of Municipalities for a list of consultants who have studied fire department conversions and take that to the board, along with the cost of a study, at their March meeting.

            Drake said he would be interested in talking with someone from Apex, which has converted its fire department, and Williams said he would invite someone to their work session in February or March “to talk about what they went through, what the results were.”

            Another concern was the possible loss of volunteers, and Swift said that would be up to the town. The fire department would lose its junior firefighter program. It would have to change to Boy Scout Explorer post.

            “Most (towns) have tried to keep their volunteers, but they did see the numbers kind of diminish over time,” Williams said.

            Since he has been the ex officio representative to the fire department board, Drake said, he has learned that the volunteers are enthusiasts who have invested a lot of their time – and the department’s time and money – in the necessary training. “I’m glad to hear we would not have to preclude having those enthusiasts and that training.”

            The fire department now has 35 volunteers and 26 paid staff. It began hiring paid staff in 1993 as the town began to grow, and in 2003 hired Keith as the first fulltime paid chief.

            The fire department was formed in 1983 from the town and the rural fire departments, which had the same rosters and shared the equipment in the identical, side-by-side stations on South White Street. The town station now houses the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce and the rural station is the Williams-Walters Building.

Fire station impact fee

            Drake appears assured of at least three votes – his own, Boyd-Lawson’s and Commissioner Margaret Stinnett’s – for a motion to do a study and hold a public hearing to impose an impact fee to build new fire stations.

            Commissioner Stephen Barrington said he is “not a fan of impact fees,” and Camacho, a building contractor, said nothing.

            The town received legislative approval to impose impact fees in 1989 because, Williams said, it wanted to assess fees for water and sewer. The town also collects a recreation fee, assessed at 40 percent of the amount the study recommended. It has authority to impose fees for sidewalks and street rights of way, EMS facilities, schools, cultural facilities, libraries and solid waste collection, handling, disposal and recycling.

            “The capital investment in [fire department] trucks and land is amazing expensive,” Drake said. “The chief is interested in three new stations, which tells me at least two are necessary.” The town needs more fire stations because “there are more roof tops.”

            Developers are eager to come to Wake Forest, Drake said. In December the CPC turned down a request for a water allocation to build 503 apartments south of Rogers Road. The applicant asked Drake how to make it more appealing: “How about a check for a half million dollars to build a road?”

            (Drake did not indicate whether it was the developer, Rhein Interests, or the planner, Priest, Craven & Associates, who offered the money. The CPC’s four members were opposed to such a large development with access from only one road, Heritage Branch Road off Rogers Road.)