LRFD approves FY 21 budget, plan to pay half of Station 4 mortgage

The Lincoln Rural Fire District board of trustees held their Aug. 27 meeting in their new digs at Station 4, which will be the site for their meetings going forward.

"As you can see, this thing is really coming together," District Chairman Dick Birkholz said. "It's come a long way in a couple months.

The meeting itself dealt primarily with the budget for Fiscal Year 2021 and a plan to pay down the mortgage on Station 4, which was acquired from Chris Waits in early 2019.

Birkholz opened the meeting with the issue of property taxes on the Fire District buildings. He explained that he has been working with Linda Stafford with the Montana Department of Revenue on a request for tax exemptions for the district's buildings.

"Right now we're paying property taxes on three different (properties)," he said, noting that the district has been paying taxes for decades on properties that should have been exempt.

He expected to have the paperwork for the exemptions on the building submitted this week.

"That will save us a couple thousand dollars a year," he said.

The budget for the upcoming year totaled $94,665, which covers normal operating costs, a Chief's budget of $6000 and an EMS budget of $4500. Birkholz explained the EMS budget is normally $2500, but the additional $2000 will cover the cost of a slide out rack for the Ford Expedition that serves as the Lincoln Fire Rescue EMS sprint vehicle.

After covering all the budget items, allocations and the $60,000 operational reserve fund earmarked for catastrophic emergencies, the district was left with a surplus balance of $53,703.

According to budget policies implemented nearly three years ago, 60 percent of those excess funds - $32,220 this year - are divided equally into capital improvement, equipment replacement, vehicle replacement and grant matching funds. That would leave the district with an unallocated surplus of nearly $21,500.

With the budget approved, Birkholz presented a proposal designed to pay down a significant portion of the mortgage on Station 4, which curretnly totals more than $108,000.

Under the proposal, the $32,220 that would normally go into the capital improvement, equipment and grant matching funds this year would instead be put toward the mortgage. The $20,000 private donation earmarked to help pay off the building would be added to that. An additional $2780 from the unallocated surplus fund would allow the district to put $55,000 toward the mortgage. That would drop the mortgage payoff to about $53,000, and interest payments would drop from roughly $450 per month to about $225.

"That will save us, this year alone, $2,100 on interest and take off seven years of what we would have to pay," Birkholz said. "If we can pay that this year, we're saving between $22,000 and $25,000 of taxpayer money in interest over ten years."

Following a brief discussion, the trustees voted to adopt the proposal.

Aside from the budgetary issues, Fire Chief Zach Muse reported this year's fire season has been pretty quiet, aside from a few campfires and the Fields Gulch fire. Muse said the Fields Gulch Fire gave them a chance to fully test the capabilities of their wildland truck "Big John." The vehicle was used to water roads and supply water to fire crews over a route Muse described as a boulder field.

"It handled phenomenally, did a great job," he said. "It's just ironing the kinks out, nothing critical to getting equipment to the fire."

Those kinks included having the pump shake loose. Merle Hoerner, who was operating the truck at the time, saw it right way and got it strapped on until he could get back to town. He and Muse replaced the bolts and got it running again, but later that same day the brackets for the supply hose on the rear of the truck broke off and the hose was chewed up by the tires. Again they repaired it and got it back into action.

On the EMS front, Aaron Birkholz reported that there have been a lot of ambulance calls this summer and it's not slowing down. Although the Lincoln Volunteer Ambulance has been busy responding to those calls, he said Lincoln Fire Rescue responded to only a portion of them, since most have been outside the Fire District boundary.

Following the meeting, Muse told the BVD the work on Station 4 is about 60 percent complete. He said they still have work to do on the water system, which he expected to be done this week, and have equipment to move over from Station 1, the main fire hall.

"The district has to pay for the building and the loan, but the fire company is taking all the donations and Firemans Ball money and firefighting money and putting it toward refurbishing the building," Muse said.

He credited Hoerner and Ken Crymble for their work in rewiring the building and the air system, and said Mountain View Co-op got the building's heater repaired, cleaned and running for just the cost of a thermostat.

"It's been great how hard everybody's been working, how the volunteers have really come together to get this building to where it's at now," said Assistant Fire Chief Derek Perez.

In addition to being the site of future district board meetings, the building will house Big John, the old command rig and a skid steer they got through the government excess program.

The old meeting room in Station 1 will be dedicated for use solely as a locker room where firefighters will house their turnouts and personal protective equipment.

Muse said they plan to repaint the exterior of Station 4 at some point, but are concentrating on making sure the interior is operational.