By Stephanie Irvine
The hearings for the 2025 Budget and the Truth in Taxation on the 2024 levy were held without fanfare and no public comment. District Accountant James noted the budget will be largely unchanged for 2025.
“Again, we have a balanced budget this year, and we are including our proceeds for the station build, so you’ll see the $8.5 million that’s here as a placeholder,” Howard explained, referring to the budget slides on a projector screen.
“There’s a 5 percent uptick in taxes based on the CPI — remember that’s why we’re levying above 5 percent and have to have the hearing today is because we still see a tremendous amount of new growth that we’re trying to capture and spread our taxes among the bigger tax base,” Howard stated.
The district expects to collect just over $7 million in taxes. The district also is submitting proposals for multiple grants. The remainder of the district’s funds come through ambulance fees.
The Truth in Taxation hearing Howard referred to in his presentation and was held during the November 18 meeting is a requirement of Illinois law when a taxing body expects to collect 5 percent or above what they collected in the previous year.
The district’s tax rate will remain unchanged.
The Manhattan Fire Protection District is able to levy or collect through taxes 5.74 percent of what they collected the previous year without raising its tax rate because homes are valued more than they were last year.
When property values go up, all taxing bodies end up with more money, even if the tax rates remain unchanged. The tax assessor assesses and sets property values based on a variety of factors.
In the monthly treasurer’s report, Howard’s reported the district is 83 percent of the way through the year and has collected $9 million in revenue.
Outside of finance talks, the board of trustees voted to appoint Anton Brncich to the board of commissioners effective January 1, with the swearing in ceremony to follow.
Chief Steve Malone reported they have been working to complete all capital projects at Stations 82 and 83 so they will not need to tackle any major repairs in the foreseeable future while the district is working on the construction of the new station.
Malone reported things are moving along with water and sewer for the new station.
Board of Trustees President Bill Moncrief noted Station 82 looked nice, with the other board members in agreement.
School safety also has been a priority for the district.
“We’ve been working a lot with the schools on safety projects,” Malone reported, explaining that he, the EMA, and the police department meet on a monthly basis to not only review the village plan for emergency operations, but then also to work with schools for drills and the state-required cardiac arrest emergency response plans.
“All of the drills and training and so forth, we’re working very closely with them,” Malone explained.
Deputy Chief Dave Piper’s report was brief, but he noted the district’s 90th percentile total response time was at 10 minutes and 38 seconds.
The district uses the 90th percentile instead of an average because it provides a more accurate view of the district’s response, whereas an average would be skewed by anomalies.
Piper also explained that when the district was planning for the new fire station, they used call response data.
“This is really what we utilized when we made the decision to put the station in a different spot. Putting the station here allows me to get to more calls faster,” Piper said.
“When we look at where the stations need to go, where we need to be, where we need to get to, this is the data we are using to make those calls,” Piper explained, while detailing all of the different response times the district tracks.
The district collects and reviews a lot of data, breaking response rates down to the time it takes dispatchers to field the call, turnout time, travel time, first response time, and the time it takes for all vehicles needed to arrive.
“So with the new station, will call time decrease, then?” Trustee Nick Kotchou asked.
“Yes, so our call times for a larger area, because we have Smith Road, we have Eastern, it’s a lot better location for us than trying to wiggle out of this station,” Piper explained.
“We’re still going to have some of those calls way out in the country at the far ends of our district that still are going to be the same, but where most of the calls are happening in our district, we’re going to be able to get there faster in a shorter amount of time,” Piper said of why the district chose the location of the new station.
Trustee Bill Weber asked if Eastern would be fixed, to which Malone said that it was planned. Malone reported Eastern by Abbey Road would be widened with culvert replacement, and eventually all of it heading south would be redone.
As of the November meeting, the district had seen 2,406 calls for service for the year.
Stephanie Irvine is a freelance reporter.