Open house held for new fire hall

Mail in ballots for the new Superior Fire Hall Bond are scheduled to be mailed out to voters on April 19. The Superior Fire Volunteer Fire District wants to make sure that voters have answers to any questions they might have. Two open houses have been scheduled to be held at the fire hall this week, which is located behind the courthouse in Superior on the corner of Cedar St. and Third Avenue E.

The first open house will be held on Thursday, April 15 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The second open house will be held on Saturday, April 16 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.

Fire Chief John Woodland said that the project’s architect will be present to answer design and construction cost questions. The architect will also have exhibits on hand to illustrate the proposed hall. Woodland said he will also be available to address the project’s budget and funding efforts. He will also be able to highlight fundamental issues with the present location and structure.

Currently, the fire department has secured a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for $346,500. The funds will be distributed once the remaining funds are approved.

“We have to come up with the rest of the money,” Woodland said.

The City of Superior has $112,500.00 set aside for the project and on May 10, the Town will be asking for the approval of its voters to borrow, through bonds, $498,000.00 to complete the funding of this project.

The volunteers plan to do whatever they can to reduce costs, such as supplying labor for interior painting. The project is also being planned so that Town offices can be added later, sharing some elements such as the training/meeting room. If the bond is not approved, the CDBG grant will be lost.

Woodland said that he feels the timing of this request works out very well for the taxpayers of Superior. A previous bond for the construction of the elementary school will be paid off in July 2012. While it is not known when the payments on the fire hall bond would start, it is likely to be around the same time that the school bonds would expire. The only thing that might happen is one overlapping payment.

Based on estimates of the interest rate that will apply to these bonds, the cost is expected to be the same or a little lower than what was paid off on the school bond. No increase in tax bills is expected. Estimates are that a property assessed at $100,000.00 will pay $55.92 per year toward the new fire hall, which is less than $5.00 per month. For the same $100,000.00 property, we calculate the amount of the payment for the school bond at $59.03, so the impact of these two items is estimated to be a $3.11 reduction.

The department hopes that people will come out for one of the open house events to get direct answers to any questions they might have.