Fire bond vote pushed to '99

Voters will not be asked to approve a $28.9 million fire bond this year after all.

Although the bond was approved for the June 8 general election by City Council in November, a closer examination of the city's budget and the fire department's needs led city staff to request the bond vote be put off for one year.

A recent council decision giving the fire department authorization to charge fees for each emergency medical transport it handles also had a role in delaying the proposed bond vote.

The department was given approval to charge $400 for each emergency transport and $350 for nonemergency cases, plus $7.50 a mile. The department plans to study that program after it is in place for one year to see what type of impact that will have.

It is expected to generate $843,180 in the first year.

"We are hoping that some of that money would offset what we have to ask the taxpayers for," department spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

City Manager Virginia Valentine said, "It's prudent to wait for the results of the fiscal impact of the revenue of that program before going to the voters."

The city will now seek the fire bond during the 2000 general election.

The bond was requested by the department due to a faster rate of residential and building growth compared with the number of fire stations. The bond would have funded and staffed six stations.

In 1990, the city had 1.03 firefighters per 1,000 residents -- a rate which has dropped to 0.81 in light of the city's booming growth spurt, according to fire chief Mario Trevino.

The city would have 0.94 firefighters per 1,000 residents if the bond was approved.

The bond was to include both a capital facilities and apparatus expenditure and the hiring of 160 new personnel to be hired over five years to staff five new stations. The 84 new firefighters and 76 new paramedics would be funded through a tax override process.

Valentine said the city will also ask the Legislature to allow impact fees to be used to construct new fire stations in the fastest growing parts of the city.

The national target for fire response is 6 minutes due to the potential for a fire to spread out of control in that amount of time and because Emergency Medical Response must be within that set time to prevent permanent brain damage and death in many medical situations.

In 1997, slightly more than half of the city's 52,417 fire calls were above the 6-minute mark. The average response time that year was 7 minutes and 38 seconds, up 12.6 seconds from 1996.

The last fire bond, a $9 million measure approved in 1992, funded three fire stations, a maintenance shop for fire equipment and a $750,000 upgrade to the communication system.

Construction on the last of those new stations will begin this spring.

"There's also the possible chance for a station to be funding within the city's general fund," Szymanski said.

The fire bond would cost an extra $37.80 for the average homeowner with a house worth $100,000.

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