First Selectman Matt Riiska has a punch list of things that he wants to complete before he hands over town administration to his successor, and creating a fire district is at the top.
“The Board of Finance has tasked us to create a fire district,” said Riiska. “I’ve been collecting information on that. I think the Board of Finance is looking at ways to generate funds from sources other than the municipal budget.”
In Connecticut, fire districts are special taxing entities and primarily levy property taxes to fund their operations and services, which usually include fire protection. They can levy taxes on real property within the district.
Fire districts can also tax personal property located within their boundaries and create special assessments on a portion of the cost of public works such as drains, sewers, sidewalks, curbs or gutters and upon properties specifically benefited by such projects.
Fire District levies and the details of their collection are outlined in the district’s local ordinances. Their taxes are separate from town taxes, and taxpayers often receive separate bills from each entity.
Riiska said Norfolk has about a half dozen properties currently not taxed that might be affected. “Some are large,” he said. “It will take an ordinance, and the state statutes require a lot of components. I have been talking to other towns, looking at how they handle it.” Ordinances require public hearings and town meeting votes before they can be enacted.
He said that neighboring Canaan, formed in 1902, nine years before the town’s fire department was formed, has a fire district that has nothing to do with fire protection. It is mostly concerned with town sewers, streetlights and sidewalks.
“Ours would be for emergency services—fire and ambulance,” he said. “I have been meeting with the assessor. We would have to create a mill rate for everyone within the borders of the community because everyone uses emergency services.”
The creation of a Fire District would transfer support of the emergency services to the new taxing entity and remove it from the municipal budget. There several fire districts in Northwest Connecticut, including in Barkhamsted, Canaan, Litchfield, New Hartford (which recently reduced its number of districts from three to two) and Winchester.