Early voting begins this Friday for a proposed one-cent sales tax in Franklin, with proceeds slated to support the city’s fire and police departments. Franklin Fire Chief Chuck Bourgeois and Assistant Chief Justin Martin spoke with KQKI News about the urgent need for the additional funding.
The sales tax would generate approximately $1.3 to $1.4 million per year, split evenly between the fire and police departments. “The sales tax would help us to be able to purchase much-needed equipment for our firefighters,” explained Chief Bourgeois. “It costs in the neighborhood of $22,000 to $23,000 to outfit one firefighter with the proper gear that they need.”
Outdated equipment and vehicles are a major concern for the department. “We’ve got some trucks that are 25 years older,” noted the Chief. “We’ve got two of them that are like 25 years old, and they need to be replaced now, and we don’t have the funds to do it.” Assistant Chief Martin added, “Just keeping the two newer trucks on the road is expensive, much less three trucks that are pushing 30 years old. You heard the Chief reference 25 years. NFPA recommends we retire trucks after 25 years, and it’s getting to the point with ours of where do you find the parts for these trucks, and the parts are doubling in price every day.”
The proposed tax would also support vital training initiatives and allow the department to create a fund for future truck replacements. “The cost of trucks these days…we paid right around $900,000, close to a million dollars for two trucks. New pumper right now is $1.1 million, new aerial is about $1.7, $1.8 million,” said Chief Bourgeois. “So you’re looking at about double now as what you paid a few years ago.”
Firefighters are also impacted by outdated facilities. The station behind us “was built in 1957, and it was not built or planned for fire trucks of 2024,” explained Assistant Chief Martin. “We’re very limited in the size of trucks we can get because of the amount of trucks we have to have and how we have to house them.”
If passed, the additional funding could lead to lower fire insurance rates for property owners by improving the city’s fire rating. “That’s one of the biggest problems that we have right now is our fire rating due to the water distribution system,” said Chief Bourgeois. “It’s old and antiquated, so we had to figure out new ways to get more points. One of the ways was to build that new training tower we just built, and it has to be paid for some kind of way. That’s going to give us more points towards the rating to lower the rating number for the city of Franklin so people can save money on their fire insurance.”
Early voting for the proposed sales tax begins this Friday, November 22nd, and continues through Saturday. Election Day is December 7th. “We appreciate if everybody comes out and votes yes for this tax because it’s really needed,” urged Chief Bourgeois. Assistant Chief Martin added, “Don’t forget to come out. Please support us because in the times it is desperately needed.”