Millersville Rural Fire Protection District backs bond issue for fire station

Millersville Rural Fire Protection District officials want voters to approve a $900,000 general obligation bond issue to finance construction and equipping of a new fire station.

The bond issue is on the Nov. 5 ballot. Under the state constitution, a two-thirds majority vote is needed for passage.

Fire chief Ray Warner said the new station would replace the district’s main fire station in Millersville, which is in poor shape and too small to house today’s firetrucks.

“We have had our engineers come out and look at it and basically the building is being held up by the metal (siding),” he said Tuesday.

“It is a pole barn kind of thing and all of the posts that were placed in the ground, they are pretty much all rotted out,” Warner said.

The Millersville Rural Fire Protection District main station is seen Tuesday in Millersville.TYLER GRAEF

“I am really afraid to stand in this thing in a wind storm,” he added. “I don’t know if it is going to fall over on me.”

Repairing the structure would have been costly, he said.

The district’s board of directors concluded “we would probably be much better off to just build a new one,” Warner said.

Fire officials want to construct a four-bay, 6,400-square-station at the junction of Market Street and County Road 482 in Millersville, a short distance from the current station.

The new station would be more than twice as large as the existing fire station, and constructed to withstand earthquakes and tornadoes, Warner said.

The fire district has three fire stations, but its main station, built in 1977, can house only two of the district’s six firetrucks. Today’s firetrucks have much more equipment on them to handle everything from fires to medical calls and rescues, Warner said.

Even the two smaller firetrucks barely fit in the main station, with 6 inches to spare on either end, he said.

Warner said the new station would be a functional facility, “nothing very fancy.”

The district is funded with a property tax, which would increase slightly if voters approve the bond issue, Warner said.

The owner of a house valued at $100,000 would pay $19 more a year in fire-district taxes or less than $2 a month, he said.

“You can’t hardly buy a soda for that,” the fire chief said.

The bond issue would be retired within 20 years, although Warner said he hopes the bonds could be paid off within 13 years.

“The whole thing people need to understand is the extra tax we are adding for the fire station is not part of their school tax or road tax, none of that. It is just an increase in their fire-district tax,” he said.

Fire district officials held one public meeting to explain the ballot measure, and two more are scheduled.

One will be held today and another Oct. 29. Both meetings will be held at the main fire station, 126 County Road 482, starting at 7 p.m.

Warner said the meetings will provide an opportunity for district residents to ask questions and “look around” the station.

“We will answer all the questions,” he said.

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