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No Comments [ Add Comment ]Homes left out of proposed fire district
By DI LEWISHONEYVILLE -- About 30 homes have been accidentally left out of a fire district originally intended to protect them.
Honeyville resident Harold Wise said he noticed the two propositions to fund the district were missing from the ballot when he went to vote Tuesday.
Thinking it was a mistake, he cancelled the ballot and went to revote on Wednesday. That's when he was told about 30 homes in Honeyville were not in the fire district.
But it is not a misprinted ballot or a mixed-up precinct, said LuAnn Adams, Box Elder recorder/clerk.
When Bear River City, Corinne, Deweyville, Elwood and Honeyville and county areas near the cities were establishing a special fire district to serve them, the homes were accidentally excluded from the boundaries by the people creating the district, she said.
Adams said the county surveyors found the mistake when they were creating the precincts for the vote and notified the attorney who had worked with the cities to create the fire district.
Right now, the excluded homes technically will not be a part of the fire district and therefore the residents cannot vote on Propositions 8 and 9, Adams said, but it will probably be amended later to include them.
So even though Wise wanted to vote on an issue he thought would affect him, it turns out he won't get that chance.
The fire district became an issue in 2007 when communities that had been providing fire services for their smaller neighbors asked for a contract price for fire protection, Deweyville Mayor Robert Thayne said.
The increase in what they had been paying was significant enough, Thayne said, that ultimately the cities decided to form the special fire district.
He said a tax increase would be involved whether the cities paid more for services or got their own equipment.
By creating the fire district "our citizens would have ownership in the equipment purchased and would be provided with good fire services."
Proposition 8 asks voters whether they want to approve a property tax to fund the district, which Thayne said was the best option because if it is passed, then businesses such as Proctor & Gamble will help shoulder a larger part of the costs.
Proposition 9, if passed, would authorize almost $1 million in bonds to fund the purchase and construction of equipment and buildings the district would need.
Thayne said a high estimate of what the propositions would cost would be an additional $79 per home, per year.
"Most of the people I've talked to have been pretty favorable about it," he said, but he is still waiting to see what will happen in the voting booth.
The district is currently governed by a board made up of the mayors from the five member cities, but Bear River City Mayor Neil Nielsen said they hope to get nonelected officials posted to the board to create a consistent and diverse governing body.
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