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| Ballot language: The North Bend Rural Fire Protection District is asking for a bond of 3.6 cents per $100 of valuation. Per state law, fire districts are allowed to levy up to a total of 10.5 cents without a public vote. Because the district has this authority, and because the local fire board is voluntarily putting the issue up for a vote, the district is required to state the total allowable levy in the ballot language, even though this project requires only a 3.6 cent bond. The language of 10.5 cents on the ballot does not change the fact that the NBRFPD board will only levy 3.6 cent cents for the new fire hall project. |
“If you want to have your vote count,” Pat Tawney said, “the day you get it in the mail, I would fill it out and put it back in the mail. Don’t wait until the 10th of February.”
Tawney is the president of the Rural Fire Board, the governing body that oversees the NBVFD.
Tawney, his wife Jolene, and board secretary/treasurer Brian Kloke have been working on coming up with a design for the new building as well as the financing.
The new building will be 13,890 square feet on the main level with some additional space on a second level. That is more than double the 6,275 square feet of the current fire station at Seventh and Maple streets, which was built in 1971. Kloke said the primary driver behind a new station is space. Fire equipment keeps getting bigger.
“Trucks are bumper to bumper,” Kloke said. “Any time you had to get one out you had to pull out another to get to it. The new station is going to be so they can pull through, or at least back into one bay where it’s not doubled up. It’s going to fit the needs for today and the future.”
The fire board has set a “not-to-exceed” value of $3.4 million on the project. That includes the cost of the building, the cost of upgrading to a bigger water line to the property, a generator for the building and the fees required for the bond and election.
The land for the new station on the southeast corner of town – the location of the former Leroy’s Steakhouse – has already been bought and paid for, mostly through donations.
Tawney said the final cost could come in below the $3.4 million figure.
“I feel very confident it’s going to be less,” he said, “but we had to put a little cushion in there. We didn’t want to end up short.”
If approved, the 20-year bond issue would add an annual tax levy of 3.6 cents per $100 of property value, or $36 on a $100,000 property.
Tawney said in the state of Nebraska fire boards have the authority to take out bonds of up to 10.5 cents without a public vote. However, the North Bend board didn’t want to go that route.
“I think that would just be crazy to do that,” Tawney said. “I don’t feel that’s right. This is a community project, and we want it to be seen as that.”
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