Avon Fire, Police Issues on Aug. 7 Ballot

Avon voters will determine if two 5-year equipment levies should be renewed at a special Aug. 7 election.

Both the Avon police and fire departments are asking for .5-mill renewal levies, on the ballot as Issues 1 and 2.

 The equipment levy has been in existence since the fire department became full time in 2003. If approved, it will continue to cost $11.51 per $100,000 home valuation for the next five years.

The equipment levy is about 15 years old. If approved next Tuesday, voters will continued to pay $15.26 per $100,000 home valuation for the next five years.

The fire department levy raises $273,4470 annually. The police levy generates $369,511 annually.

"The quality of services we get from these departments with no increase in these levies in years is impressive," councilman Bryan Jensen said in April.

Mayor Jim Smith said the current levy and equipment purchased is one of the reasons the city has an ISO (insurance) rating of 3, better than most of the surrounding cities.

“It’s only for equipment, for computerizations and bringing things up to snuff,” Smith said. “It’s reasonable; it’s comes to less than ½ mill with all the new building going on.”

The levies are for what is called "capital assets," such as computer equipment or police cars. Money from the levies is not used for day-to-day operations.

The money from the current fire department levy helped purchase a earlier this year.

Should either levy fail, they would likely go back on the ballot in 2013, Mayor Jim Smith said.

“We probably should have put it on in the spring,” he said. “In November there are school issues and it gets to be a crowded horse race. We were a little remiss in not putting it on in the spring.”

Smith said the last large purchase for the fire department was a $1 million truck seven years ago, and money from this levy could be banked for future large purchases.

“We paid cash for that, we put money in the bank over a number of years,” Smith said. “But the ISO rating is proof positive it was worth it.”

The Insurance Service Office (ISO) rates communities from safest (1) to least safe (10) and can affect insurance costs.