Fire Dept. asks city for tax hike

Erin Neff

Monday, Feb. 28, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

When Las Vegas residents go to the polls this November, they won't just be casting ballots for president. They likely will be deciding how safe their neighborhoods can be as well.

The Las Vegas Fire and Rescue Department will ask the City Council on Wednesday for permission to proceed with a ballot issue that would raise the city's fire tax to pay for new stations, personnel and equipment.

Although the department got the council's approval to put a bond issue on the ballot last year with the municipal races, city management decided to wait for the 2000 presidential election and its stronger voter turnout.

"Now we're just back looking at it again," Fire Chief Mario Trevino said. "We know we still have the need."

Last year city officials were able to budget money for one new fire station through the general fund. That decision, coupled with the department's startup medical transport business, made it easier to delay a voter-approved increase in fire department funding, Trevino said.

Although Trevino does not yet know what the new fire tax will be, or how much it will cost the average taxpayer, he does have ideas on how to spend the money.

Fire Safety Initiative 2000, as the tax hike is being called, would fund five new stations, three rescue bay additions, a training center, 12 new pieces and 20 replacement pieces of apparatus and 169 new employees.

"A fire bond, like the one we had proposed for last year, would only cover the bricks and mortar-type expenses," Trevino said. "With this initiative we have been looking at the same thing Metro (Police) has done, and that is to ask to use the tax for personnel."

If the council allows the fire department to proceed with the ballot initiative, Trevino said he will convene a citizens committee to study what level of tax increase voters would likely support.

The planned initiative would fund new fire stations in the west and northwest portions of the city, where growth is heaviest.

Those stations are planned for Smoke Ranch Road and Torrey Pines Drive; Buffalo Drive and Summerlin Parkway; Alexander Road and Durango Drive; Corbett Street and Hualapai Way; and in Summerlin Village.

The fire training center also would be built in the northwest, and three rescue bay additions would be used to expand the department's medical transport service.

The initiative proposes money for five engines and rescue trucks for the new stations and three additional trucks. Three specialty units, including an air resource vehicle, command post and a hazardous materials unit, also would be funded.

Five new stations would require 152 emergency personnel, including 68 paramedics, 28 captains, 28 engineers and 28 firefighters. The remaining 17 positions would be support staff.