Fire service a focus of annexation

Bella Vista's proposal to annex Hiwasse places a spotlight on fire departments.

Fire protection is one of the most voiced concerns about Bella Vista’s proposed annexation ofthe Hiwasse Community.

Currently, Bella Vista has an Insurance Services Offices rating of 6, while Hiwasse is rated a 9 - the highest in the county. Ratings go from one to 10, one being the best and 10 the worst. ISO ratings determine homeowners insurance premiums. According to ISO’s website, www.isomitigation.com, the majority of communities in Arkansas (661) are rated a 9, while 189 communities hold a rating of 6.

Gary Stephensen of State Farm Insurance Agency said that typically every two classes of an ISO rating offer a 5 percent difference in homeowners’ premiums. For instance, a rating of a 5 or 6 is likely 5 percent less expensive than a rating of a 7 or 8.

ISO scores are based 10 percent on dispatch alarm capabilities, 50 percent on the fire department and 40 percent on the water system.

Benton County Fire MarshalWill Hanna said there are multiple factors that determine an area’s ISO rating. The higher the number, the higher homeowners’ insurance rates will be. These factors include local water supply, location of fire stations, department equipment and area road conditions. Fire department staffing and training also factor into the rating.

“A full-time paid firefighter will receive more training than a volunteer firefighter,” Hanna said.

The rating is taken from the area as a whole - if Bella Vista annexes Hiwasse, it’s possible the ISO rating for the city will increase, Hanna said.

“It will affect Bella Vista as a city if they pick up that many square miles without adding a fire station,” he said.

Fire Chief Steve Sims says it’s unlikely residents in the existing city limits will see a change totheir ISO rating. The ISO can only be changed when there is an evaluation done on the city. According to the ISO website, ISO will not automatically increase the rating and therefore cause an increase in insurance premiums, but rather work with the community to improve the score.

The last evaluation was done in May 2001, when the city had a population of 16,500. Sims doesn’t know when the next will be.

The Bella Vista Fire Department is better now than it was then, he noted. The department now owns a ladder truck, and the personnel and training have expanded. The water system has also improved remarkably, he said.

Sims said his guess is that the city, after annexation, would become one with a split ISO rating, like that of towns such as Decatur and Pea Ridge. Being inside city limits doesn’t mean those in the Hiwasse area will have the same ISO rating as those living near Town Center.

According to the ISO, in many communities ISO develops a split classification (for example, 6/9). Generally, the first class (6) applies to properties within five road miles of a fire station and within 1,000 feet of a fire hydrant. The second class (9) applies to properties within five road miles of a fire station but beyond 1,000 feet of a hydrant.

Without a fourth fire station, residences in Hiwasse will likely not get a better ISO rating than they have now, Sims said, because the rating is largely based on proximity to a fire station.

The 2008 city budget was the first in which Sims put in for a fourth fire station. He said long before that, when the Fire Department was underthe Bella Vista Property Owners Association, there were talks of an additional station. Sims said the city is in great need of another station, even without annexing additional land.

Station 1 - at Town Center - currently responds to 65 percent of overall calls to the fire department, including fire and medical calls. Adding a substation in the Highlands would reduce that amount to 49 percent, with the new Station 4 taking on 25 percent of calls.

Currently, 6.8 miles separate Station 1 and Hiwasse, and six miles between Station 3, locatedon Glasgow Road, and Hiwasse.

With a station in the area of the Highway 279 corridor, Sims said the response time into Hiwasse would be five minutes.

It’s unknown at this time who would provide fire protection to those with homes outside the proposed annexation boundaries that are currently serviced by the Hiwasse Volunteer Fire Department.

“We would have to look at it geographically, make some decisions based on response times from Centerton, Gravette and Bella Vista,” Hanna said about changing boundaries of the fire protection districts.

Sims said in past fire protection zone clean-ups, he and chiefs of surrounding cities’s fire departments have met and agreed who will cover what area. They then filed the new plans with Benton County 911 mapping department.

The 2007 city ordinancecreating the fire department authorizes the fire department to extend its protection outside city limits.

Hiwasse residents have expressed concern over the water infrastructure in Hiwasse. There are currently seven hydrants in Hiwasse, all on the Arkansas Highway 72 corridor. Hiwasse water services is provided by the Centerton Water Service District.

Hanna said the infrastructure is not in the ground to provide hydrants to all of the Hiwasse area.

Sims said there are also areas in Bella Vista that don’t have access to hydrants.

In the event of a fire in Hiwasse, he said firefighters would do what they are trained to do - the same thing Hiwasse Fire Department does now when they need it - call for tanker support from surrounding departments such as Centerton and Gravette.

“Bella Vista Fire Department is part of the Benton County Fire Protection Association, just like Hiwasse - like everybody is. We have a mutual aid agreement. When we have to deal with not having water, we know how to do that. We’ve demonstrated we know how to do that - it’s what we’re trained to do,” he said.

DEPARTMENT DIFFERENCES

Hiwasse is currently protected by a volunteer fire department, consisting of 15 volunteers and four trucks, including a 4,000-gallon tanker. Two of the trucks are owned by the department and two belong to the county. The department sits on land owned by the Gravette School District.

Bella Vista has three operating fire stations and seven trucks, including a 75-foot ladder truck, four pumpers, one utility hazardous materials vehicle and trailer and one medium rescue truck, plus five ambulances. A pumper and the Haz-Mat vehicle are furnished by the county.

News, Pages 1 on 01/04/2012