By John Richmeier
Leavenworth Times – November 6, 2013
Officials with Leavenworth County Fire District No. 1 recently discussed building a third station. But the department’s fire chief said people shouldn’t expect to see the new station built anytime soon.
That’s because there doesn’t seem to be significant enough support for the station from residents in the area where it would have been built ― northern High Prairie Township, according to Chief Rick Huhn.
Fire District No. 1 provides service to the city of Lansing and the Delaware and High Prairie townships. The department already has a station located in Lansing and another one at at 25115 187th St. in the High Prairie Township.
Huhn said the idea of a Station 3 was proposed to lower insurance costs for people in the northern part of the High Prairie Township.
Huhn said the Insurance Services Office currently gives fire service for that area of High Prairie Township a rating of 10, which is not considered a good score. But he said if the residents were within five miles of a fire station, the ISO rating automatically would change to 9.
He said insurance company representatives have told him such a change could reduce homeowner insurance premiums by 20 to 30 percent.
Huhn said the ISO rating for Lansing and the Delaware Township is 4. People in the southern half of the High Prairie Township have a rating of 5 or 9.
“We’re trying to make it even for everybody,” he said.
Adding the station would have meant an increase in property taxes for people Fire District No. 1. He said it would have increased property taxes for the owner of a $150,000 home by around $74 per year.
Fire District No. 1 is a mostly volunteer fire department but it includes full-time paid firefighters who work out of the Lansing station. Huhn said people also would be needed to work in the third station if it were to be built.
Huhn said members of the Fire District board and the High Prairie Township board met last week. Twelve people from the public attended the meeting. Two of them were adamant that they didn’t want their taxes raised. The others seemed to like the idea of the new fire station but didn’t fight for it, Huhn said.
“We’re not going to have a Station 3 in the foreseeable future,” he said.
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