Agenda - 03-19-2013 - 5j - Laserfiche WebLink

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Attachment 1 WHITE CROSS FIRE DEPARTMENT Mr. Talbert, Mr. Groves, and County Commissioners, White Cross Fire Department 5722 Old Greensboro Hwy Chapel Hill, NC 27516 Phone: 919-942-1194 Fax: 919- 942 -9733 E -mail: Oerations@whitecrossfire.com March 1 st, 2013 White Cross Volunteer Fire Department has been working very diligently on a plan to improve our customer service, by increasing our response capabilities and improving our insurance rating. In doing so, we identified several keys areas that need to be addressed and components that need to be put in place to achieve this. The main objectives we would like to complete for this coming budget year are as follows. Construct a substation on Neville Road. Purchase an additional tanker to certify the new station. Increase daytime staffing from an average of 1.2 Firefighters a day on duty to 2 firefighters a day. We believe the cost for completing the objectives above are relatively small, compared to the benefits the citizens would receive for these improvements. The construction of the substation will allow us to provide the entire eastern part of our district with rated fire protection of ISO class 7. Currently this area is rated ISO Class 10 or considered unprotected by the insurance company. By con- structing this station and placing the newly purchased tanker into service, it will allow us to cover all the homes that are currently unprotected in the eastern part of our district. This would place 96% of the homes in our district within 5 road miles of a fire station. This would provide them the best possible rating that we hold at this time (currently a ISO 7), with 3% of the district covered within the 5 to 6 road mile range allowing them access to rated fire protection. Furthermore, the construction of the substation, purchase of the tanker and added daytime staff also allows us the possibility to lower our future ISO rating to a class 6 for our entire district, saving all our citizens additional money on their fire insurance premiums. The biggest advantage to completing the objectives above will be improved overall customer service, improved fire ground service capabilities and firefighter safety; it will reduce response time for the first and second arriving units to the incident in the eastern half of our district. Improve the availability of on scene water supply during incidents. It also places AEDs closer to this area of our dis- trict for medical emergencies, while providing safer levels of staffing for emergency incidents. These improvements will allow us to adhere more closely to National Fire Protection Association 1720 standards for rural fire pro- tection that addresses response times, on scene staffing, and available water supply. The incurred costs for achieving these objectives are as follows; $250,000 for purchasing and construction of the substation financed for 30 years through the Local Government Federal Employe es credit union @ 3.45% interest rate ($14,000.00 annual payment). $250,000.00 for purchasing and equipping tanker financed for 10 years through the Local Government Federal Employees credit union @ 2.99% interest rate ($28,000.00 annual payment). The operating costs to achieve these objectives are follows; Salary 11,000, Utilities $3,000, Fuel $4,500.00, Building and grounds maintenance $2,000, insurance $4,000.00. The total needed revenue to complete these objectives would be $66,500, requiring a 1.8 cent tax increase July first 2013. We come before you asking for approval /preapproval prior to the normal budgetary meeting, in an effort to be able to guarantee revenue, so we may purchase the land for the substation before it becomes unavailable.