City in negotiations with Fire District 2
The city of Jennings has begun negotiations with Jeff Davis Fire District 2 to revise a joint service agreement that provides fire protection to the area courtesy of the Jennings Fire Department (JFD).
The agreement, originally created in the 1970’s, arranges for JFD to provide fire protection for residents and businesses outside of the city limits, from the western limits of La. 99 to the Mermentau River in the east. Areas included within this fire district are Pine Island, Raymond and Hathaway. The fire district, which collects ad valorum taxes from residents in this entire area and does not have paid firefighters, pays $20,000 a year to the city for its services.
Mayor Henry Guinn said monetarily, the arrangemment isn’t fair for Jennings taxpayers.
“We’re all here and we all have to help each other, but my responsibility to this city is protecting the taxpayer’s money,” he said. “The agreement we have doesn’t do that.”
The joint service agreement, as written in the earliest available version of the document from 1989, shows that Fire District 2 paid $25,000 annually to the city for its fire department to fight fires in the area and train the district’s volunteer firemen. The latest version of the agreement drafted in 2017 also gives the district fire protection from Jennings but now only pays the city $20,000 annually for the same services.
“They were paying us more nearly twenty years ago than they’re paying us today,” Guinn said. “How did they pay us more in 1989 with a smaller population and fewer homes to offer services to?”
Guinn said he has begun negotiations with the board of Fire District 2 to change the agreement. The revisions proposed by Guinn would give the city half of $493,324 in ad valoreum taxes collected by the district annually.
“They collected nearly half a million dollars in 2017 from their taxpayers and they only have one employee, the fire chief,” Guinn said. “I sent certified letters to the entire board and sat down with the chief and asked for half of their collected taxes annually. They don’t want to negotiate, and that’s not fair to the taxpayers of Jennings at all. We have 14 salaried employees in our fire department and a chief. It costs us $1,428,815 annually to run our fire department and currently I can’t afford to give my employees raises. We’re not going to get taken advantage of.”
Guinn said he hopes the two sides can come to an agreement soon, and is happy to continue providing fire services to the area in the meantime.
As of press time Friday, Jennings Daily News was unable to reach board members of Fire District 2. Hathaway police juror Wayne Fruge said he had no comment on the matter at this time.