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BUCKHANNON – The Upshur County Firefighters Association has invited the community to a public meeting to discuss the proposed fire fee increase that will appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
The Upshur County Commission voted to place the fire fee increase proposal on the ballot during its Feb. 12 meeting.
The current fire fee structure is paid annually and costs $25 for an individual residence, $50 for a commercial property and $5 for five or more acres of vacant land. The increase on the general election ballot would raise the fees to $35 for an individual residence, $70 for a commercial property and $7 for five or more acres of vacant land.
The fee has not been increased in more than two decades, while inflation has nearly doubled in that time.
“The fee has not gone up for, I believe, 20-plus years, but at the same time, there has been some increased revenue from the state that comes through, and we just felt like that was a good starting point,” Upshur County Commissioner Sam Nolte said. “I know the fire departments are definitely in need of some extra funding, and this would be helpful. We want to give them the best opportunity to get it approved by the citizens.”
Joe Carrico, vice president of the Upshur County Firefighters Association, said they will offer a Q&A session on the proposed rate increase at the Brushy Fork Event Center on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. to address any concerns from the public.
“I’m the appointed spokesman for the association, so I’m going to give a basic history of how the fire fee came to be, and the fact that it hasn’t been raised in 25 years. Then they can ask any questions they want, and we’ll try to answer them the best we can,” Carrico said. “It’s a question-and-answer session to help people see the need for it to be increased. The price of our stuff has just gone crazy over the past 25 years.”
Carrico said he has also noticed misinformation on social media, and he hopes to spread accurate information before the election.
“There’s a lot of misinformation about how much the increase is going to be and what we do with the money, things like that. It was proposed about three years ago. We proposed doubling the fee, because at that time, the Buckhannon Fire Department was talking about doing a first-due fee,” Carrico said. “Had they done that, it would have taken about $15,000 away from each volunteer department, because the people paying that fee would no longer pay the county fire fee.”
Since the first-due fire fee has not moved forward, the association agreed to lower its requested increase.
“When we propose something like an increase, it has to go from us to the Upshur County Fire Board, then they have to take it to the Upshur County Commission,” Carrico said. “Between the county commission and the fire board, they proposed we could just go to about 40%, and the association agrees with that.”
Carrico also noted surrounding counties have a higher fee than Upshur County.
“I’ve looked them up and checked them. Barbour County’s fee is $60 a year for a residence, Lewis County’s is $157 a year, Randolph County’s is $75 a year, so even if we go to $35, we’re still going to be the lowest one in a four-county area,” Carrico said. “It’s been 25 years since the fire fee went into effect in 2001, and there’s been no increase to it until now. When the fee went into effect, gas was probably less than $2; now it’s $4.”
