Commissioners vote no on paying fire department bill

Commissioners voted 3-2 at their Jan. 5 meeting not to pay a bill the county recently received from the Luverne Fire Department.
This is the first time a $750 bill for a fire call was presented for payment to the county.
On Oct. 9, 2015, the Luverne Fire Department responded to a grass fire in the ditch along County Road 11 near 71st Street. The fire was contained to a small area in the ditch owned by the county.
Responding to the scene was a tanker truck owned by the township association. The tanker truck, which carries water to a fire scene, is used only for calls outside the Luverne city limits.
As is customary, the fire department bills property owners $750 for a fire call. The monies (usually paid by an individual’s property insurance once a bill is presented) are used to support the fire department.
When the township tanker is used on a fire call, the $750 is deposited in a fund specifically for the truck’s future replacement.
County Administrator Kyle Oldre said he talked to township officials about how the future tanker trucks are funded.
“They (the township association) never really thought about other units of government,” Oldre explained. “It (the bill) was intended to collect insurance money.”
The Jan. 5 vote wasn’t the first action commissioners had taken on the matter.
A motion not to pay the $750 was made at the commissioners’ Dec. 22, 2015, meeting. That vote ended in a 2-2 tie with Commissioner Jody Reisch, a member of the Luverne Fire Department, abstaining.
At the Jan. 5 meeting, Reisch and Sherry Thompson supported a motion to pay the bill with Ron Boyenga, Ken Hoime and Stan Williamson voting no.
After the meeting, Williamson said he couldn’t support paying the bill because townships specifically levy property owners for fire protection, and taxpayers shouldn’t be tapped to pay the bill.
“It’s like they get paid twice,” Williamson said.
 
In other business, commissioners:
•Elected Jody Reisch as chairman for 2016. Ken Hoime is vice chairman.
•Collected $73,218 in gravel tax for 2015, up from $56,628 collected in 2014.
•Heard that Rock County received a 100 percent from the most recent tobacco compliance check.