Fiscal Court asks New Hope Fire to show the need for $20 annual fire dues increase

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024 — Nelson Fiscal Court had some hard questions regarding a request by the New Hope Fire Department to increase its annual dues from $40 to $60.

The request first came to Nelson Fiscal Court in June 2024. The court has delayed taking action on the request after the court questioned the need for the increase, and Judge-Executive Tim Hutchins suggested the department conduct a public hearing.

At its meeting Tuesday night, Hutchins promised the court will vote — one way or the other — on the issue at its next meeting.

Magistrate M.T. Harned questioned a fire department board member about the fire department’s finances.

“What have you done as an organization to raise money?” Hardned asked.

The department held fundraisers, chased grants and tightened up its finances, Harned was told.

To reduce expenses, the fire department quit responding to EMS calls for a time. Last year, the department started responding along with EMS to emergency calls in its coverage district.

Its hard to accept a request for higher dues wihtout bringing prooof of the need for money, Harned asked. “Give me a breakdown of where the money is going,” he said. “What we don’t understand is why it needs to go from $40 to $60.”

The fire department dues are currently $40; however, the dues aren’t billed to every deeded piece of property. If an individual owns four parcels, the owner is only bill dues for a single property, meaning dues aren’t payed on the other properties.

In June, the fire department said it had about $55,000 in revenue from fire dues.

Magistrate Keith Metcalfe suggested that if the fire department collected dues from every piece of property, the department could generate an additional $20,000.

After extensive discussion, Hutchins announced that the department needed to provide the court with is financial information.

Hutchins said the dues increase request will be tabled for now, with a plan for a vote at the court’s next meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024.

ELECTION CHANGES. Nelson County Clerk Jeanette Hall Sidebottom told the court that there will be changes in how the November election is conducted in Nelson County.

The biggest change for the election is that there will no longer be polls located in precincts on Election Day.

Instead, there will be eight voting centers across the county. Residents of the county will be allowed to vote at any of the eight voting centers.

The Nelson County Public Library will be used as one of the eight voting centers. The rest will be scattered around the county.

Each voting center will have at least one county clerk election staff member on duty on Election Day. As in past elections, there will be three days of early voting the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before Election Day.

Nelson County households can expect to receive a postcard about the voting changes ahead of Election Day, Sidebottom said.

This election ballot will be two-sided, she said, and voters will be reminded to read the two constitutional amendments that will be on the back of the ballot.

In other business, the court:

— gave final approval of two zoning changes on two tracts on Caney Fork Road.

— heard Judge Hutchins use an executive order to create a new Cemetery Preservation Committee. The committee will identify private cemeteries in the county and locate funds and grants to help maintain and preserve them.

Botland resident Rhonda Wathen was named chair of the committee. Anyone interested in serving on the committee should contact their magistrate or Judge-Executive Tim Hutchins.

NEXT UP. Fiscal court will hold a special meeting at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, to give final approval of the proposed property tax rate of 12 cents for every $100 of value.

The current tax rate is 12.7 centers per $100 value.

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