At the December 2024 WFFPD Board meeting, your elected board of directors unanimously voted to add a tax levy to the April 2025 ballot. This tax levy would fund the ability to provide a paid firefighting service to the community that will compliment the volunteer efforts that has served the citizens of the Winfield Foley Fire Protection District well for over 65 years.
The board members share a vision of a community that is consistently and effectively protected around the clock. The WFFPD volunteer program is robust and thriving, and paid staffing will ensure the coverage of the community during times where the volunteers are traditionally not in service, including during the work-day. This vision also fulfills the second half of the promise to the community that was put into motion with the purchase of modern and up-to-date equipment and apparatus made possible by Proposition Safety five years ago in 2020.
The information in this booklet has been compiled to explain the tax increase in depth and to answer any of the questions the voters within the Winfield Foley Fire Protection District may have. If you have additional questions, please contact Chief Arron Lee at (636) 358-3528 or at alee@wffpd.org.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve and protect,
Board President- Denny Flowarzney
Board Treasurer- Dean Zerr
Board Member- Bill Colbert
Board Member- Tom Schulte
Board Member- Kirk Woehler
Fire Chief- Arron Lee
Proposition Fire is a tax increase ballot measure on the April 8th, 2025 municipal election ballot. If approved, Proposition Fire would add 37 cents per 100 dollars of assessed valuation to the general fund tax levy. This ballot measure would allow funding that would be used to pay the firefighters of the Winfield Foley Fire Protection District to ensure consistent and professional coverage for many years to come.
The approval of Proposition Fire will allow the Winfield Foley Fire Protection District to:
-Transition the department from an all volunteer department, to an all-paid fire department at an estimated annual cost of $550,000.
-Implement cancer prevention measures for the firefighters of the WFFPD at an initial estimated cost of $20,000 and an additional cost of $10,500 per year.
The WFFPD board of directors have unanimously decided that the time is now to transition from a volunteer department, to a paid firefighting service.
Since 2016, the WFFPD has seen an 80% increase in call volume. The current rate of calls for 2025 puts us at over 850 calls if the trend continues.
Lincoln County remains the fastest growing county in the State of Missouri. The WFFPD has seen the addition of many new residential developments, as well as the expansion of the commercial spaces within the district. These increase the need for 24/7 coverage for our schools, roads, and residences.
The WFFPD has been a volunteer department since it’s origination in 1950 and has served the community as a professional and consistent service as a volunteer department and is confident in being able to provide consistent and professional services as a paid department.
The landscape of the WFFPD has changed vastly in the last 75 years. The demographic of the WFFPD has shifted from a mostly agricultural district with smaller supply and convenience towns to a bustling residential community with its own school districts, shopping centers, with many full time careers within the districts boundaries.
The traffic, infrastructure, and residential developments to support all of the above have increased exponentially in the last 75 years.
In the past ten years, the WFFPD has seen the expansion of the Winfield School District, above average residential growth rate, the addition of residential developments on Chantilly Road, commercial developments of Caseys, Dollar Tree, Redemption Ranch, the developments at Hwy W and 47, as well as Dollar General in Foley MO, and the Solar Field Project offof Hwy W and Y.
There are plans and projections of multi family housing throughout the district, and this would be consistent with the growth observed in the rest of the county.
The WFFPD protects 95 square miles within the central-eastern portion of Lincoln County. The Winfield Foley Fire Protection District is its own entity and is not a part of the Lincoln County Fire Protection District. The Lincoln County Fire Protection District is defined in yellow in the map below. The WFFPD is defined in the dark purple in the map below.
The WFFPD protects a diverse number of features in the county including our five growing schools, rapidly growing residential developments, two heavily traveled highways, the MNA railway (a Class 2 railway), as well as the the Mississippi River and the Lock 25 Dam. The Mississippi River itself transporting 62% of the grain exports in the entire United States.
In the next five years there are plans for a large multi-year construction project for the improvement of the Lock 25 Dam, which is projected to bring 250-500 temporary workers to the Eastern Lincoln County area.
The additional cost of this tax levy will be 37 cents per 100 dollars of assessed valuation. Please refer to the chart below to calculate what a paid firefighting service will add to your current annual property taxes.
*Assessed value is 19% of appraised value.
**Current Tax rate is 43 cents per 100 dollars of assessed valuation.
The current budget of the WFFPD is approximately $330,000 and has remained between $300,000 and $330,000 for the last 6 years. This annual budget is utilized for the maintenance and utilities on four stations, insuring and maintaining 18 pieces of firefighting apparatus, outfitting and organizing over 30 active volunteers, covering 95 square miles of fire protection district, insuring and providing workman’s comp on all volunteers and administration, responding to an average of 800 calls for service, and providing life saving training for our personnel.
At the end of each year, the WFFPD has a balanced budget that allows for the department to strategically do the minimum of what it needs to do for it’s current capacity, but not a dollar more. The WFFPD prides itself on having a balanced and independently audited budget each year. The transition of a volunteer to paid department on the current budget is simply not possible.
ISO rating stands for the Insurance Services Office safety rating and determines how prepared a community is for fire suppression. This rating is based offof water supply and fire department data as well as other emergency service infrastructure within the community.
The ISO provides ratings, 10 being the worst, 1 being the best.
At our last ISO evaluation, the WFFPD scored 6, which is an improvement from the previous rating of a 10.
The WFFPD has been working hard to establish water supply at new commercial and real estate developments, in addition to improving the water availability on trucks at certain stations.
Having paid firefighting crews does help to improve the ISO rating score, however there is no way to gauge exactly how much this would lower the score in order to provide a reliable estimate on if citizens will see improvements in their home owners insurance.
The transition from a volunteer fire department to paid fire department is one that has been considered for many years and one that will be strategically executed.
The WFFPD retains a robust current volunteer roster, something that is an outlier in the statistically declining volunteer industry in the United States. Proposition Fire would first and foremost compensate the current dedicated volunteers for their service when they are running calls, transitioning the current volunteers to a paid-per-call system. The volunteers would be paid at approximately $25 per hour when they respond to a call to help justify time spent away from their home and family.
Secondly, the WFFPD would employ a day-time crew to provide even and consistent coverage for the day-time working hours when volunteers are statistically at work or unavailable. The current qualified WFFPD members would be considered for these crew member positions in addition to outside interest.
The requirements for the day-time crew would be Fire 1 and 2 as well as EMT-B certification.
There are several measures the WFFPD takes to ensure the transparency of the expenditures within the WFFPD:
-Five-member board- This five member board includes members elected by the citizens of the WFFPD. This allows for representation of the WFFPD citizens at all board meetings and within the voting and trajectory of the WFFPD. The standard operating procedures are kept up to date and adhered to to ensure consistency and transparency within the department. The expenditures are approved by the WFFPD Board Treasurer.
-Public board meetings- The public board meetings take place at the WFFPD on the second Tuesday of the month at 6:30 PM. These board meetings are open to the public. Any changes in the meeting times or schedules are posted at least 24 hours in advance. Public comment is allowed at all regular board meetings.
-Independent Audits- The WFFPD hires an independent agency to preform an outside audit yearly. These audits are then submitted to the state.
-You! The citizens! The WFFPD plans to provide consistent updates on all steps of the Proposition Fire measure and the execution upon approval. Please ask any questions you have and the WFFPD will provide all answers possible to your questions.
The official ballot language reads as follows:
Shall the board of directors of the Winfield Foley Fire Protection District be authorized to levy an additional tax of thirty-seven (37) cents on the one hundred dollars assessed valuation to provide
funds for the support of the district?
This support includes the district’s transition from volunteer to paid firefighting staffto provide consistent emergency response, implementing cancer prevention measures, and enhancing firefighter training; thereby reducing response times to save lives and property.
The election will take place on April 8th, 2025 during the municipal election.
Please visit the link below to check your voter status.
https://voteroutreach.sos.mo.gov/portal/
Please visit the link below if you are needing to register to vote:
Absentee voting is available starting March 25, 2025 at the Lincoln County Clerk’s Office at 201 Main St, room 204 in Troy. Hours are 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. M-F.
To send an absentee ballot my mail, please complete and sign the application below and email it to absentee@lincolncomo.gov or fax to (636) 528-5528.
To find your polling place, please visit the link below.
