The Mayor and the City Council are endangering public safety by moving fire protection money from the Hamilton Volunteer Fire Department to build a “Justice Center” on the Armory property.
The Hamilton Volunteer Fire Department (HVFD) has a Capital Improvement (CIP) fund set up to purchase fire trucks and safety equipment when they come due (typically on a 20 year rotation) to be replaced. The taxpayers of Hamilton may not have heard about this fund because they have NEVER been asked to purchase a $500,000 fire truck or $300,000 new SCBA’s (Air Tanks) because HVFD has budgeted for large purchases and then has set aside funds for that day.
This CIP fund has been formally in place for over 25 years. Prior to the formal CIP account, there was a working understanding between the City Council and HVFD that money received into the City from the County for fire protection services would go toward the purchase of fire related equipment managed by HVFD.
Over the past 36 months, the Mayor has diverted approximately $300,000 of taxpayer money from the HVFD CIP fund for fire protection services, and allocated that money to the Justice Center fund.
When the Fire Department representatives asked the Mayor and City Council about what would happen when they need to purchase a fire truck or other safety equipment and the CIP is gone, the response was “You will need to go out and ask for a safety levy to pay for it.”
The City has been aspiring to build a Justice Center for a number of years. They are preying on the taxpayers’ good will by claiming to save a park in order to increase your taxes and build the Justice Center.
Please join us and send a message that purchasing the Armory property is poor use of taxpayer money and we DO NOT want our taxes increased for the Armory property OR for fire protection equipment.
Corey Johnson
Scott Turner
Paul Krahn
Travis Walker
Troy Crawford
Rich Luedecke
Chris Mayer
Hamilton