Fire bond vital for community
Editor:
Over the past several years, Lebanon Fire District has been working on a plan to replace its main station and some key apparatus.
Our goal is to meet these capital needs at the lowest possible impact to taxpayers.
The fire district funds daily emergency operations through a property tax levy and ambulance revenue. However, costly capital items such as stations and apparatus are funded through voter-approved bonds.
Our plan is to retire an existing bond one year early, which reduces the overall amount property owners would pay. We then would ask voters to approve a replacement bond for the station and apparatus projects during the November 5 General Election.
The net increase for taxpayers would be 14 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The bond rate property owners pay also would decrease as our community grows.
We are not able to fund capital projects through our operations budget without reducing emergency service levels. This plan is a way to accomplish capital projects and reduce the impact to taxpayers.
We look forward to having our community participate in the public process as the conversation unfolds this summer.
Allen D. Forster
Board President,
Lebanon Fire District
Thanks, cemetery clean-up helpers
Editor:
Sand Ridge Cemetery Association would like to thank Papé Machinery of Tangent for the use of their John Deere tractor with backhoe at our recent SOLVE Historic Cemetery cleanup day. The backhoe was put to use removing tree roots which have been barriers to mowing.
We are thankful that 23 volunteers participated in the event, and hope to have good participation at next year’s event as we continue to improve the grounds at Sand Ridge Cemetery.
For more information about Sand Ridge Cemetery, please contact [email protected] or call (541) 451-2006.
Kathy Otis
President, Sand Ridge
Cemetery Association