EXPLAINER: Hazelgreen Fire Protection District adds tax levy to August ballot

HAZELGREEN, Mo. (KY3) - Hazelgreen Fire Protection District is adding a tax levy to the August ballot.

“We’ve got cheaper property taxes here than almost every state that I’ve ever been in,” said Hazelgreen resident Don Kjorvestad.

He’s living in Hazelgreen with his family and supports a tax for the fire department.

Don would like to see some of the money go to hire a few volunteers full-time.

”It’d be nice to see that go to full-time,” said Kjorvestad.

If passed, firefighters say the money will mostly go to equipment and recruiting.

”We have a lot to do lists around here that include equipment at our three fire stations, potential building of another fire station, any recruitment and retention programs maintaining our ISO rating of 6x, lots of things on this list to do that,” said Ashley Poe, a lieutenant with the Hazelgreen Fire Protection District.

The district has roughly 20 volunteers. If approved, the property tax increase would be about 60 dollars a year for anyone with a 100-thousand dollar house.

”We are asking for the first tax levy, and in our known 40 years, we haven’t asked for one since at least 1983 that we can track down. We are operating on a budget from that year 1983,” said Poe.

The election is on August 8.

To report a correction or typo, please email digitalnews@ky3.com

Copyright 2023 KY3. All rights reserved.