The president of the Southern Boone County Fire Protection District says new facilities would cut down the district’s emergency response times, so the district is asking southern Boone County residents to vote in favor of a $2 million bond issue on April 3rd. The district would use the money to replace a twenty-year old fire engine, house six more firefighters in the Ashland station and purchase a site close to the Highway 63-Route Y intersection for hands on training. Southern Boone County Fire Protection District President Jim Cunningham says the district currently has an operation budget of two hundred-fifty thousand dollars.
“We have really done more with less money than anybody ever thought we could. And while we have those successes, we can’t rest on our laurels. We really have to plan for the future, and the future for us is more and more fire calls,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham says about five years ago, the district responded to three or four hundred calls a year, and the current call rate is six-hundred sixty. He says he expects this trend to continue.