By Margaret Gillerman
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
Copyright 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
A proposal by the West County EMS and Fire Protection District to expand its boundaries to include Town and Country appears headed for a heated contest at the polls.
The district’s directors passed a resolution this week to have an election and to forward the petition to the St. Louis County Board of Elections for verification. District officials say they have several hundred more signatures of Town and Country voters than the 1,671 needed to start the annexation process. They say this indicates that Town and Country residents want to expand services and protection.
But about 35 residents of Town and Country showed up Monday night to voice opposition to becoming part of the district.
“We plain do not want to be a part of the district and feel this movement has already gone too far, that residents have been completely blindsided,” Mariette Palmer, a resident, said later.
Town and Country currently has a contract with the fire district for emergency medical and fire protection, but the municipality pays for the services. If Town and Country voters approve the proposal, property owners in the municipality would pay a property tax to the district to cover the costs of services.
The resolution approved by the fire-district directors says that there was no opposition at an earlier public hearing from district residents. Town and Country residents are not in the district at this time, so opposition from any residents from that municipality was technically not from district residents.
Paul Mercurio, fire marshal, said that the earlier hearing was intended to allow residents already in the district to give their opinions. The election will allow Town and Country voters to register their opinions, he said.
“The resolution lets the people in the expanded boundary area (Town and Country) have the opportunity to vote in November,” he said.
Palmer said this was a “technicality.” She said opponents of the proposal didn’t like district officials “saying there had been no opposition to the proposal at the hearing from anyone in the district, as there had been lots of opposition. But they won this one on a technicality, as we are not actually members of the district.”
Fire officials say that the benefits to Town and Country residents and businesses would include increased services and faster response times in emergencies. Chief Dave Frazier has said the fire district would add another fire station, pumper truck and ambulance in Town and Country.
The fire district’s residential tax rate last year was 84.4 cents for each $100 of assessed value. At that rate, the owner of a house worth $300,000 would pay a tax of $481.08 a year to the fire district if its proposal is approved.
At the hearing on July 10, opponents said they didn’t want increased taxes and were satisfied with their current services.
Palmer at that hearing criticized West County’s proposal to expand its boundaries to include Town and Country as an attempted “hostile takeover of our tax-paying residents and commercial businesses.” She and other residents also said that the petition should have originated with the people of Town and Country, not the fire district board, which hired a company and off-duty firefighters to collect the signatures.
Roger Fagerberg, a lawyer and longtime resident of Town and Country, said the annexation “would be of benefit to everyone . . . except the residents and businesses of Town and Country.” Another critic of the plan, John Hoffmann, a Town and Country resident with former police and fire experience, said, “There is no need or desire for an additional level of government bureaucracy.”
But Beth Knoedelseder of Manchester at the earlier hearing said she hoped Town and Country voters would realize the safety benefits of joining the West County district. “I hope they see the big picture, not just ‘we have to pay a tax,’” she said.
Two Town and Country Aldermen, Tim Welby, 2nd Ward, and Fred Meyland-Smith, 3rd Ward, said they still were in the “information-gathering” stage, but they said they see no need now for making a change.
“I have never heard a complaint or negative comment about response times and service levels” provided by West County EMS and Fire, Meyland-Smith said.