By Division Chief Adam Storey
There are many important questions to answer when you are considering building a fire station: Where should the station be located? Who will design the station? Which construction method do we use? These three questions will greatly affect the cost of the station. So, how do you obtain the funds to build your next fire station? Let’s tackle several factors to consider.
Planning and budgeting
The process of building a fire station, from the initial conceptualization to budgeting and design, takes years to complete. If you’re unsure where to begin, let your strategic plan help determine your department’s needs. Forecasting the need for a new station is a critical step in your department’s future and its ability to meet the needs of your community.
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Once you’ve done your research, collected your data, and justified your new station, you will need to set a budget. This can be a very tricky number to settle on, because there are several factors to consider. The site drives the design, design determines the construction type, and the market will dictate the price of construction.
For most departments, the budget is the most challenging aspect of building a new station. Whether your funding is coming from the municipality’s general fund or your own fire fund, it is never easy to work a multi-million-dollar fire station into the budget.
The good news is that, as noted, any fire station build is a multi-year project. The land, design, bid process and construction will take years to complete, so you can fund the station over time. Year one may be the land acquisition, year two the design fees and bid process, with years three and four accounting for the construction phase. This will allow you to spread the cost over multiple budget cycles.
Where to find the money
First things first, a capital improvement plan should be used to assist your department with the planning, budgeting and coordination for the new station.
If you can create a funding line in your current budget, great. If not, try using a penny tax. In the state of Georgia, for example, this is called a SPLOST — Special Purpose Local Sales Tax. This tool allows communities to raise funds specifically for infrastructure and capital improvements without relying solely on property taxes.
A SPLOST is an optional 1% county sales tax that funds capital projects that have been proposed by local government officials. The tax is implemented when the board of commissioners calls a local referendum, and the referendum is passed by the voters of the district (or county). The tax is collected on items as a sales tax, unlike a bond referendum. A bond referendum is a request to borrow money. The SPLOST or penny tax can be imposed on food, nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages, and motor fuels. The length of time a SPLOST can be imposed varies, but most intergovernmental SPLOST are 5 to 6 years. The intergovernmental agreements allow for the county and other municipalities to share SPLOST revenues.
You will need community support for SPLOST to pass, and fortunately, fire stations are usually an easy sale. In fact, public safety is often leveraged to get an entire SPLOST referendum to pass. Details are not required, but public involvement with your capital improvement plan and project details may increase the support your SPLOST project will need. Beware of being too specific on the ballot, as you may put unnecessary restrictions on yourself. If the description on the ballot is simple, with more broad statements about facility improvements, including a new fire station, then you have more freedom of using these funds across the department. On the other hand, if you are too specific about how you plan to use the funds, then you can only use those funds in that exact manner. The more genetic description can also be beneficial if there are revenues above projection. These funds can be related to other SPLOST projects.
The key benefit of using a sales tax model is that it does not increase property tax, and the revenue is generated from residence, workforce and people traveling through the jurisdiction. Plus, the funds can only be spent on that project. SPLOST can be used for any one-time capital purchase; you are not limited to new construction. It could be renovations, apparatus or any other one-time large capital purchase.
The program pays off
It is our department’s practice to use SPLOST for facilities. When it comes to apparatus procurement, we take the approach that apparatus should be an annual budget item, not dependent on a referendum. However, we do work from a biannual budget cycle that is supported by the Fire Fund (individual fire milage rate from property taxes). The strategic plan allows for land acquisition and a new station every two years. Our SPLOST programs have allowed us to rebuild more frequently and fund our newly renovated training, where we added a new class A burn building, high-rise building, logistics/air lab building, training classroom/administrative building and other new training props. This $23 million project simply would not have happened without SPLOST funds.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Storey is a division chief with Cobb County (Georgia) Fire and Emergency Services, where he has served since 1997. He also is the executive officer for the director of public safety. As the chief of logistics, Storey is responsible for capital improvements, facility maintenance, apparatus maintenance and support services. He holds a bachelor’s degree in human resource management and an associate degree in business administration, and is a graduate of the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government’s Management Development Program.
