The only sure thing about the new fire impact fees the Town of Wake Forest would like to include in the 2016-2017 budget is that they will be lower than the present fees. All the rest is quite confused.
Raftelis, the consultant firm which recommended the first fire impact fees for new construction, mistakenly included the cost of Wake Forest Fire Department’s Station #4 on Jenkins Road in the calculations for the future fees, Finance Director Aileen Staples told the town board Tuesday night. “He’s going to do another report after we hear from you guys,” she said.
Mayor Vivian Jones and the commissioners asked how they could react to a study when the figures are wrong. “Why is it [Station #4} included in the calculations? It’s already paid for so why are we including it in the figures?” Staples said the station was still under construction when the study began.
Jones also said she was uncomfortable charging 100 percent of what the same person from Raftelis recommended in the first study in 2006. “I think it should be no more than 80 percent and perhaps a little bit more than that. We don’t have to collect money to build that station again.” Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said she had no problem with charging 100 percent because we do not know what costs will be 10 years from now, but Planning Director Chip Russell said the best practice is to back off that 100 percent number. “I wouldn’t recommend 100 percent.” Jones cited general statutes about impact fees and what towns can charge. “We need to be very careful in that.”
Staples said the original impact fees “did what we wanted to do,” which was provide funding for Station #3 on Forestville Road and Station #4 on Jenkins Road. The fire department is planning to one more station within 10 years, and Staples said she and Fire Chief Ron Early have scaled back the estimated cost for that station on the east side of town from $5 million to $3.5 million.
There will be a new report for the board by the end of this week, Staples promised, in time for the work session on the budget on Tuesday, May 31, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the ground-floor training room at town hall. No one spoke at the public hearing on the budget Tuesday night.
One of the reasons for the lower fees is the different management at the fire department now from 2006. Current Chief Early plans only the one new station in the near future though he has spoken about basing one or two more ladder trucks in selected stations. Ladder trucks are needed these days because modern home construction includes many gables and roof levels making it difficult if not impossible for firefighters to get on a roof to attack a fire.
Early is hoping that the 1.48-cent increase in the current fire service tax rate for county property outside town limits proposed by Wake County Manager Jim Hartmann will mean an end to the Wake Forest department being shortchanged by the county. The Wake Forest department contracts with both the town and the county fire district, Wakette, for fire protection and other services. A recent study has shown how the shortfall in county funding has affected the fire department, leading the town to make up some of the difference.
Currently the town provides 11 cents on the 52-cent property tax rate for the fire department, and the budget for 2016-2017 proposed by Town Manager Kip Padgett keeps the same rates.
