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financing a new station?
Looking for creative ways to finance a new fire station without going to the taxpayers....grants, low interest loans, etc...thanks
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You could try for a community development block grant. Your city or county government should be able to help with the process.
Rural Electric Assoc. may have a no interest loan fund available. You pay back the full amount of the loan plus a 10% fee on the total amount. (I.E. You pay back $110,000 on a $100,000 loan.)
Check on municipal lease programs with the local banks. We financed a fire station in 1992 at 7% for 15 years. We tried farm home but they would not finance us for the full project unless we raised our mill levy for capital outlay to the maximum allowed by state law. We actually saved money by going with the lease because the term was shorter (15 yrs vs 20 yrs.) -
Depending on the town, state or county you are located in. Look into the following items. Sales Tax (1/4% sales tax) for fire department, MIL tax (property tax)"fire service tax", local banks, Township Mgrs., State Fire Commisioners Office, Local EMA, Fema/USFA, Small Business Admin.(banquet hall is a business if licensed right), Fund drive letters (Professionaly done work better), Local Newspaper articles discussing the need for money from residents (donation request), Large businesses in community in need of a tax deduction. And create a Public Relations Committee to "market" your *** off (keep a tight hold of this, review everything before it goes public!)
We found our biggest funding problem was ourselves, we never told the public what we do. In turn, "we never knew you answered 229 calls last year, your never in the paper". We started a website, news articles and such.We now have a fund drive letter getting 48% of the township participating in it. We do not have a facility to do cooking events. We rely soley on the letter. So far so good, also its an Election Year, hit up your State Senators and Congressmen. www.forksfire.com
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