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05-13-2003, 10:30 AM
Iona voters raise tax cap for fire district
Botched election notices upset some
By MIKE HOYEM, mhoyem@news-press.com
Voters in the Iona-McGregor Fire District approved a tax cap increase Tuesday in an election plagued by spotty notification of voters.
With votes in 23 of 24 precincts counted late Tuesday evening, 70 percent of voters said yes while about 30 percent said no.
The one uncounted precinct didn’t appear to stand much chance of changing the election’s outcome.
Iona-McGregor Fire Chief Gerald Adema says an increase in taxes is needed so the district can hire more firefighters, paramedics and staff a new station being built off South Pointe Boulevard.
The district, Adema says, also needs to comply with new national safety standards and a new rule that prevents firefighters from entering a burning structure unless there are at least two going in while another two stand by outside.
Kathleen Buckley, 57, voted yes.
“I feel that when it comes to police and fire that’s one of our most important things,” Buckley said. “I wouldn’t want to be sitting at my house and having a fire and not have someone be able to respond or not allowed to respond because of the law.”
Buckley received a fire district newsletter in the mail telling her about the election.
But many voters said they received no notice.
Joe Heffernan, 67, wasn’t pleased with his lack of notification and called the situation “kind of lame.”
“They need to do better than a newsletter,” Heffernan said.
Iona-McGregor Assistant Fire Chief Steven Juntikka said the district hired a company to send newsletters to every household in the area.
But he said that did not happen — for reasons that still weren’t clear Tuesday — and district officials had to hand-deliver hundreds of newsletters themselves.
The district — which covers a section of Lee County south of Fort Myers, west of U.S. 41 and north of Fort Myers Beach — currently has the lowest tax cap of any fire district in the county.
A mill is $1 in taxes for every $1,000 in taxable property. Fire Board Chairman Mark Primmer said raising the tax rate to about 2 mills should give the district the money it needs.
“It’s something that as a board needed to be done for the additional personnel and for the safety factor for the firefighters in the event of a structure fire,” Primmer said. “I’m happy about the outcome. The funds were necessary.”
The district has 32,818 registered voters but only about 2,000 people went to the polls.
Lee County Elections Supervisor Philinda Young said the turnout of around 5.7 percent was low, but typical of a special election featuring no other issues or candidates.
“It’s usually somewhere between 5 and 8 percent in an election like this,” she said.
Young said she offered to conduct the election by mail, which would have eliminated the voter notification problem and would have resulted in a higher turnout — probably from 40 to 48 percent.
The mail election also might have cost a little less than the $40,000 the district will pay for the conventional election, Young said.
But district officials turned the offer down.
Juntikka said the district wanted a traditional election so it would have an opportunity to inform voters.
“You need to provide people with the reasons why,” Juntikka said. “In a mail-out campaign, you can’t do that. We wanted an opportunity to make our case to the public.”
Botched election notices upset some
By MIKE HOYEM, mhoyem@news-press.com
Voters in the Iona-McGregor Fire District approved a tax cap increase Tuesday in an election plagued by spotty notification of voters.
With votes in 23 of 24 precincts counted late Tuesday evening, 70 percent of voters said yes while about 30 percent said no.
The one uncounted precinct didn’t appear to stand much chance of changing the election’s outcome.
Iona-McGregor Fire Chief Gerald Adema says an increase in taxes is needed so the district can hire more firefighters, paramedics and staff a new station being built off South Pointe Boulevard.
The district, Adema says, also needs to comply with new national safety standards and a new rule that prevents firefighters from entering a burning structure unless there are at least two going in while another two stand by outside.
Kathleen Buckley, 57, voted yes.
“I feel that when it comes to police and fire that’s one of our most important things,” Buckley said. “I wouldn’t want to be sitting at my house and having a fire and not have someone be able to respond or not allowed to respond because of the law.”
Buckley received a fire district newsletter in the mail telling her about the election.
But many voters said they received no notice.
Joe Heffernan, 67, wasn’t pleased with his lack of notification and called the situation “kind of lame.”
“They need to do better than a newsletter,” Heffernan said.
Iona-McGregor Assistant Fire Chief Steven Juntikka said the district hired a company to send newsletters to every household in the area.
But he said that did not happen — for reasons that still weren’t clear Tuesday — and district officials had to hand-deliver hundreds of newsletters themselves.
The district — which covers a section of Lee County south of Fort Myers, west of U.S. 41 and north of Fort Myers Beach — currently has the lowest tax cap of any fire district in the county.
A mill is $1 in taxes for every $1,000 in taxable property. Fire Board Chairman Mark Primmer said raising the tax rate to about 2 mills should give the district the money it needs.
“It’s something that as a board needed to be done for the additional personnel and for the safety factor for the firefighters in the event of a structure fire,” Primmer said. “I’m happy about the outcome. The funds were necessary.”
The district has 32,818 registered voters but only about 2,000 people went to the polls.
Lee County Elections Supervisor Philinda Young said the turnout of around 5.7 percent was low, but typical of a special election featuring no other issues or candidates.
“It’s usually somewhere between 5 and 8 percent in an election like this,” she said.
Young said she offered to conduct the election by mail, which would have eliminated the voter notification problem and would have resulted in a higher turnout — probably from 40 to 48 percent.
The mail election also might have cost a little less than the $40,000 the district will pay for the conventional election, Young said.
But district officials turned the offer down.
Juntikka said the district wanted a traditional election so it would have an opportunity to inform voters.
“You need to provide people with the reasons why,” Juntikka said. “In a mail-out campaign, you can’t do that. We wanted an opportunity to make our case to the public.”