ROGERS, Ark. — With the growing number of people who live near Beaver Lake, the Beaver Lake Fire Department is responding to more calls than ever. Because of that, they are wanting to become a fire protection district which would change their funding structure and provide sustainable funding in the most equal way possible.
“Our calls have nearly doubled in 5 years. Our revenue has also stayed stagnant, no additional revenue in that same time period. What has changed over that time period as well, is we’ve added staffing to our fire department to guarantee a timely response to your emergencies,” said Chief John Whisenant.
Chief John Whisenant says they serve a 13 square mile area of 7,000 people with 4 firefighters on duty at all times. Right now, they are gathering signatures from those residents so the Benton County Quorum Court can draft an ordinance that if approved would convert the fire department to a fire protection district.
This would mean instead of residents all paying $150 per year, they would pay .325% for every $100,000 in property they own. For someone who had $100,000 worth of property, they would pay $325 a year.
“We don’t anticipate if this be successful that the maximum will be assessed immediately. We don’t know what that assessment may be because that’s a future organization, but we are not anticipating the maximum being needed to sustain today’s level of operation,” he said.
Beaver Shores resident, Jordan Poole supports the fire department but is concerned about not knowing exactly what this new tax would be.
“I do think this potential rate increase could be substantial and I wouldn’t want a hundred to two hundred percent bump in a year. If they really need the money and they can show that they need that much money I would be willing to pay,” he said.
If the Beaver Lake Fire Department collect the 400 signatures needed, there will be two public meetings for people living in this area to give their input before the decision is made. The last time there was a fire fee increase for people living in the Beaver Lake area was in 2017. At that time fire dues went from $75 to $150 a year.
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