 The
Ponderosa Volunteer Fire service is funded by an ad valorem tax
of $0.06 per $100 evaluation on the residents’ property. For
the owner of a $150,000 home, that translates to a $90 tax bill
per year.
The annual cost to
operate the PVFD is just under $1 million per year. That
includes $151,000 debt retirement for the new building as well
as fire trucks and equipment, and it works out to be
approximately $18 per capita, per year. By way of comparison,
the City of Houston per capita is over $110 per year, and it
doesn’t include debt retirement or capital expenditures, as
our does.
Every year, the
Emergency Services District tax commissioners set the tax rate.
Currently, the maximum rate for Harris County is $0.06 per $100,
but at some point it will probably be necessary to seek
legislation to raise this rate to fund additional paid
firefighting personnel. No one likes to pay taxes, but last year
alone actions taken by PVFD volunteers and staff saved over
$39,405,430 in losses. Over the years Ponderosa Volunteer Fire
Department has demonstrated its ability to utilize its resources
wisely and to provide superior quality of emergency care.
Ponderosa VFD has the
lowest (best) Insurance Services Organization (I.S.O.) rating of
any volunteer fire department south of Dallas and the lowest of
all volunteer fire departments in unincorporated Harris County.
The lower the I.S.O. rating, the lower the insurance rates paid
by residents.
The year 2000 was an
active one for PVFD. The department responded to 1,385 calls --
318 fires, 372 EMS calls, performed 65 rescues, responded to 144
hazardous condition calls, 46 service calls, 228 “good intent”
calls (someone responded and was turned back or there was a
smoke scare but no fire), 8 calls in the “other” category,
and an alarming 204 false alarms. There was only one firefighter
injury last year.
In
addition to responding to alarms, the department’s members
spend an average of 12 to 24 hours a month training and in
meetings.
Anytime a firetruck
leaves a driveway, or a firefighter leaves his or her home on a
response, there is risk involved. To minimize this exposure to
risk, the dispatch center calls on all automatic alarms. These
confirmation calls saved over 300 exposure incidents last year
alone, so this practice continues in 2001. There is now a charge
for responding to false alarms triggered by alarm systems.
Residents are allowed two such calls per calendar year, then
there will be a $300 charge for the third call, and $150 for
each additional call.
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