John Woods had reason to be thrilled in January 2020.
The chief of the Jonesburg-High Hill Fire Protection District came up with a proposal of a tax increase that will help the fire department …
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John Woods had reason to be thrilled in January 2020.
The chief of the Jonesburg-High Hill Fire Protection District came up with a proposal of a tax increase that will help the fire department get new equipment and fire trucks.
The Board of Directors unanimously approved it.
“That was a scary deal,” Woods said. “I was pretty nervous to propose it.”
Now, Woods hopes that the voters approve the tax increase during the April 6 elections. The fire district is asking to increase the tax levy by another 15 cents. Currently, the budget is at $154,389.
“It will be a big boost to the fire department,” Woods said. “It will start our plans of moving ahead.”
The levy increase is estimated to generate an additional $89,659 in new money. The funds will help pay for a pumper replacement program and new equipment.
“Since the formation of the fire protection district 23 years ago, we had never gone to the voters and asked them for anything or any change in our levy,” Woods said. “The original levy that was approved by the voters was 30 cents and we have never taken it (higher).”
The Jonesburg-High Hill fire district was formed in 1998 and had its first Board of Directors that included Floyd Weeks, Fred McClure Sr., Glen Garland, Tim Margalas and Ken Holden.
If the tax increase is approved, the district will be looking to replace three fire trucks.
“We have three pumpers out here,” Woods said. “They’re kind of a tale of two cities. The truck that we got off the FEMA grant was a truck that we bought new. The other two trucks that were not purchased off the FEMA grant, they were bought from the Community Fire Protection District.”
All of the trucks cost the district over $11,000 in repairs since October 2018.
“Whenever I took over as fire chief in January 2018, we started working on trying to get our trucks in good shape,” Woods said. “We found a mechanic who works full time for the St. Louis Fire Department as a firefighter, but he works a side job as a fire truck mechanic.”
Woods’ proposal included a drawing of a new commercial truck.
“It would have ladders that slide beside the tank out in the rear of the truck,” Woods said. “It will have a 1,000-gallon water tank on it so when our firemen go to a scene, they’ll have a lot of water available to them initially. It allows them time to build that water supply from whatever they have around them.”
Originally, the Board of Directors planned to present the proposal before the voters in August 2020. But the plan was put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Woods, who has been working at the fire district since 1991, said he was happy he got the opportunity to present his proposal to the board — which included his father — last year. It took him six months to work on it.
“They asked me if there’s anything big on the horizon that I thought that needed to be addressed,” Woods said. “I hung my hat a little bit and I said, ‘Yes, we have to replace fire trucks and here’s how I think we should do it.’ I shot it (the proposal) to them for 30 to 45 minutes. At the end of it, the board was unanimously all for it.”
