Resident questions planned Hillsboro fire station
Staff writer
Some proposed renovating city buildings, and others expressed worries about those being built at a Hillsboro City Council meeting Monday.
Resident Robert Herzet expressed concern about the price of a new Hillsboro fire station, which is expected to be constructed within 18 months.
The council voted July 15 to issue $6 million in bonds for the project. The fire station is estimated to cost $5.2 million.
Hillsboro hopes to finance the station in part through a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan, which the city applied for Thursday. A decision is expected by late September.
Herzet argued that the station cost too much for a city that didn’t have a full-time fire department, and that the public should be able to vote on the issue.
“I don’t really believe that four or five councilmen should make that decision for the entire city,” he said.
The council did not respond to Herzet’s comments, but Mayor Lou Thurston acknowledged them after the meeting.
“We’ve had public meetings about this,” Thurston said. “It isn’t a factor of Hillsboro’s growth rate; it’s just that we’ve needed a real station for years.”
He said the fire department needed adequate storage for equipment, some of which is kept in the city building.
Police Chief Jessey Hiebert also talked about facilities while telling the council that the police department responded to 3,137 “calls for service” in the last year.
These include accident, incident, or offense reports, responding to animal complaints; and court appearances.
Hiebert reported finding mold and mildew in the police station.
Hillsboro investigated the condition of the station in July, after storms caused leaks.
The city is considering relocating the department.
Hiebert said his dream was for the public library to move out of the city building at 120 E Grand Ave, and for the police to take its place.
“You turn this way it’s the cops,; you turn this side it’s city hall,” he said.
Hiebert stressed the need to recruit young officers.
Duane McCarty is retiring early next year. Three more, including Hiebert, plan to retire within a decade.
Hiebert proposed raising wages or transitioning the department onto the more lucrative Kansas Police and Firemen’s Retirement System, which Marion uses for its officers, to lure in applicants.
The Kansas Public Employee Retirement System requires employers to put an extra 9.71% of an employee’s wages into a pension.
Under the Police and Fire system, that number is 24.67%.
An online troll joined the city’s video call halfway through the council meeting.
“End this meeting now,” the disembodied voice said before rattling off a string of vulgar words and slurs.
City administrator Matt Stiles kicked the perpetrator out of the video call.
Hillsboro previously was targeted at a March 4 council meeting.
“This is only the second time in the five years since we’ve been online,” Stiles said. “I don’t know what their deal is. There were eight more of them in the waiting room.”
In other city business, the council approved issuance of revenue bonds of up to $3 million to Salem Home to install a new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system at the nursing home.
“Currently, they have an old boiler system that is very antiquated,” Thurston said.