Cape County residents will see Proposition ‘Fire and Life Safety’ on April ballots

CAPE COUNTY, Mo. (KBSI) – Cape County residents can expect to see Proposition ‘Fire and Life Safety’ on their April ballots.

According to the Fire Chief of Gordonville Fire Protection District Michael Gentry passing the increase would allow them to make some much needed repairs and safety enhancements.

“We are asking to replace two of our fire trucks. One being the one right behind us. It’s a 1994 farm-built truck. It’s a manual truck and needs some major repairs. Its leaking at the tank. It needs some body work done to that and with that the cost is really too high were we want to fully replace this truck” says Gentry.

According to Chief Michael Gentry the Gordonville Fire Protection District has served residents in a 77-mile radius since 1993 and has ran off of grants and good budgeting up to this point. He says with rising costs they have run out of funding.

“To replace a truck like this for what we need down in this area is around anywhere from 500 thousand to 700 thousand dollars just to get the truck in our district. Not including all the equipment, we put on it. We operate three stations within our jurisdiction to allow a 5-mile coverage for our resident’s we try to achieve that for ISO standings” says Gentry. We have lowered our ISO ratings over the years. Dropped that down to hopefully offer better insurance premiums for the residents.” 

The station updates needed play a crucial part in their response time and fire fighter safety. Gentry says on top of needing truck repairs they need roof repairs, bunkers for one of the stations along with technology and security updates and the station doesn’t just respond to fires they respond to emergencies as well, and gentry says updated equipment is vital to them successfully responding to a call. 

“The county has a private ambulance service so what we can offer our residents is key to life safety. We can get them stable enough to transport before the ambulance gets on scene. It can average 18 minutes or more for the ambulance to get to a service in our jurisdiction so for our members and jurisdiction to offer that service is key. It could be a life saving measure.” 

According to gentry they have not asked for a tax increase since 1993. This measure would provide a 25-cent property tax increase on every $100 assessed from citizens.  

“For me to put a firefighter inside a house fire it costs around 15-20 thousand dollars just for one firefighter and that’s not saying that NFDA says hey every ten years you need to replace your fire gear. Well just for that fire gear and everything else that firefighter raise that takes a lot of money to operate the district and that’s why we’re really putting this on the ballot for April I mean 32 years is a long to go without a tax increase.” 

For those who want to learn more about Proposition Fire and Life Safety can attend a meeting on Friday February 21st at 1:30 pm at the Gordonville Fire Protection District station number 1.