City Charges For Fire Protection

Joe Zawisva has farmed on his land outside Harrah for more than 82
years.

We mainly plant wheat, corn and maze, said Zawisva.  

Wednesday afternoon Joe got a surprising phone call.

He called me up and said hey your old storage house is on fire. I said
it is?

The fire was minimal and put out quickly but when Joe saw the fire chief
the next day he got an even bigger surprise.

Harrah was going to start charging for fire protection outside city
limits.

Those charges don't come cheap...

For grass fires we're looking at $100 per hour per vehicle. For
structure fires $300 per hour per vehicle with a $1500 maximum, said Harrah
City Manager Earl Burson.

Burson says city council approved the ordinance after looking at the
number of fire calls outside city limits.

He says from 2007 to 2011 the number nearly doubled.

The budget is a great deal of it. We only have 2 sources of income
sales tax and water and sewer. Rural customers are not on our water and sewer so
we are not collecting from them.  

The Harrah fire department has a $406,000 yearly budget.. Burson says
that money must pay salaries and fund all fire equipment including  a new tanker truck the city just purchased.

That was a $284,000 expenditure. 

Burson says most insurance companies will cover the cost of a fire run but
for Joe that's not an option.

I don't have those buildings insured out there because they're not
worth anything.

Joe says he didn't call for help when his shed caught fire and shouldn't
have to pay for the service.

I would have let it go. Let burn down and get rid of it.

Burson says the city will work on payment plans for anybody charged.Joe
says he was told differently.

They said if you didn't pay it they was going to file a lien against
your property.

The ordinance went into effect January 1^st.  

Posted: Friday, January 25 2013, 08:57 AM CST