Voters approve Laramie County Fire Authority's $5.9 million bond

Nov. 7—CHEYENNE — Tuesday's only local election resulted in a victory for the Laramie County Fire Authority, as its bid for a $5.9 million general obligation bond was approved by a majority of voters.

In-person voting took place at LCFA Station #71 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Paired with absentee ballots, the final vote was around 58% in favor of increasing their taxes to support the bond.

This is the first time LCFA has sought the public's support for capital funding. The approximately 20,000 residents serviced by the Fire Authority will see a slight increase in property taxes over the next five-and-a-half years to pay off the bonds.

Despite the fact that less than 5% of eligible voters showed up to cast their vote, Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee reported that 200 voted in favor and 147 were against the request.

"We're super excited and thankful for the people that came out and voted and supported us," LCFA Deputy Chief Manny Muzquiz said after the results were announced. "We knew that this was going to be a tough race with the economic times that we're in. It can be hard for people to afford those additional taxes, but we want to assure the public that these funds were needed and that they're going to be spent wisely."

Muzquiz said he hopes the bonds will be sold and funds will be available by the beginning of next year.

Once they have the funds, LCFA plans to work quickly to buy new trucks and apparatus, as well as get started on renovation and construction projects.

"The real work begins now," he said, "forming all these committees to figure out how to get all these projects done and to get them on a priority timeline and to get them in line to get the work done and to get them paid for. It'll be very soon that people will start seeing some stuff start showing up and being placed into service."

The property tax rate on the assessed value of commercial and residential properties is around 6.7% for the LCFA coverage area. With this approval, property tax rates will go up by around 0.2%.

If a house is valued at $500,000, property owners would be paying $104 more per year to pay off the bond debt.

LCFA's current operating funds come from a mill levy tax on property, as well. For the past 10 to 15 years — including before Laramie County Fire Districts 2 and 8 combined to form LCFA — the only option for outside funding has been grants and free equipment from military surplus programs.

The funds from the bond will be used to support the construction of a new fire station on Happy Jack Road, repairs to existing stations, replacement of aging trucks and other equipment.

One of LCFA's larger expenses will be to replace a 1993 MKE 102-foot ladder truck that was donated by F.E. Warren Air Force Base around a decade ago. A suitable replacement costs around $2 million and requires a two-year wait, which is a purchase LCFA officials said they would not be able to make without the bond.

There is also a 2004 fire engine that needs to be replaced. The National Fire Protection Association recommends these be retired after 20 years of use. Today, they cost around $1 million.

The bond will also support the replacement of 13 brush trucks, water tenders and support vehicles, which cost between $100,000 and $500,000 each. LCFA said it would take 20 years to replace without the bond.

"Not only are we going to be able to replace some of our aging fleet and do things that we wouldn't be able to do with our normal mill levy property tax money," Muzquiz said, "it's going to help offset some of the cost of the things that are important that we aren't getting with this bond, like staffing."

Muzquiz said he understands nobody wants their taxes increased, but this is in the best interest of the community.

"We've done our due diligence to make sure that these funds are what is needed. We wouldn't be asking for them if we didn't need them and if it wasn't in the name of public safety," he said. "But we do understand that the people that did vote no are our voting no because their taxes are going up. And we're understanding of that."

In 2019, Laramie County Fire District 1 passed a similar general obligation bond to raise $3.1 million. LCFA is working with the same company, Kaiser Wealth Management, that advised LCFD1 to get its bond approved.

Todd Bishop, president and CEO of Kaiser Wealth Management, said that the 2019 vote passed comfortably.

He's confident that all the bonds will sell locally within Laramie County, as they did in 2019, to keep the money in the community.

"I don't anticipate having a problem with that at all. I think we'll be able to do that this time around, as well," Bishop said.

Muzquiz encourages residents to reach out if they have any questions or concerns about the way in which these funds will be used, and he is excited about showing off the new equipment to the people that paid for it.

Noah Zahn is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's local government/business reporter. He can be reached at 307-633-3128 or nzahn@wyomingnews.com. Follow him on X @NoahZahnn.