Township Approves Reduced Fire Station Proposal
At their regular monthly meeting Monday evening, the Turkey Creek Township Advisory Board voted unanimously to approve a reduced bid by Allen County Builders for the renovations to Fire Station 1 in Syracuse.
The original bid of $669,000 was $200,000 more than the approved budget created two years ago. By reducing the square footage and materials (-$102,000), eliminating a fireman’s pole (-$20,400) and using an alternate furnace (-$6,000), the project proposal was reduced to a total of $540,600.
This proposal will head to the Syracuse Town Council for debate at their regular meeting tonight. Once approved and all necessary paperwork is in place, the project would take approximately seven months to complete, explained Syracuse Fire Chief Mickey Scott.
In his report, Scott shared the department had responded to 16 fire calls and 98 EMS calls in June, and 15 fire calls and 101 EMS calls in July.
Scott also noted he met with the Department of Local Government Finance on July 22. He presented the proposed budgets that were approved by the township board at last month’s meeting. No issues were noted.
The proposed budget stands at $1,533,660 for operations and $170,000 for replacement equipment. Scott said the total proposed budget is $96,484 less than 2009.
Per the Kosciusko County Auditors’ Office, this year 86 percent of the budget came from township taxes and 14 percent came from town taxes. Estimated property taxes to fund the 2014 budget would be $1,192,527.60 from Turkey Creek Township and $194,132.40 from the town of Syracuse.
The Turkey Creek Township Advisors meet at 7 p.m. on the second Monday of each month at Syracuse Fire Station 2.