Monday, Dec. 22: Possible decision on adding Bean Blossom Township to Monroe Fire District

A decision to change Bean Blossom Township’s approach to fire protection could be made on Monday evening (Dec. 22).

Set for Monday at 5 p.m. in the Nat U. Hill Room of the historic Monroe County courthouse in downtown Bloomington is a meeting of the county commissioners—who could decide to add Bean Blossom to the area covered by the Monroe Fire Protection District (MFPD). It’s the commissioners who have the statutory authority to make such a decision.

The township currently gets fire protection from the Bean Blossom Township Volunteer Fire Department, in Stinesville. The township is concerned with fire service coverage and response times, in light of the limited capacity of the volunteer department. There are two alternatives considered in a Baker Tilly study, which was authorized by county commissioners in April of this year, with a not-to-exceed amount of $10,000.

One option is to to contract with the town of Ellettsville for fire protection. The other option is to join the Monroe Fire Protection District. If Bean Blossom were added to the MFPD, that would mean all of Monroe County except for Ellettsville and Bloomington would have their fire protection provided through MFPD.

The lead-up to Monday’s meeting started more than a year and a half ago, when commissioners voted to approve a resolution to put Bean Blossom on a path to be added to the MFPD. But by the end of the year, when 500 postcards in support of the proposal had not been received, the effort was over—at least for that year. It’s not clear if the county commissioners are carrying over the same procedural approach from 2024 to this year.

A big factor in the discussion last year was the possibility of Bean Blossom Township contracting with Ellettsville for fire protection, as an alternative to adding the township to MFPD.

Three weeks ago, on Dec. 4, the commissioners held a public meeting in Stinesville on the topic. Responding to a question from the audience at the meeting, county commissioner Julie Thomas said that if the Bean Blossom Township and Ellettsville came to a contractual agreement, that would not “stop a vote” by commissioners on the question of adding the Bean Blossom to the MFPD. Thomas put it like this: “It would not stop a vote, because a vote is yes or no …”

Thomas continued, saying that a contract between Ellettsville and Bean Blossom Township would not necessarily take off the table a decision by the county commissioners to add Bean Blossom to MFPD. But Thomas said if a contractual agreement were reached by Ellettsville and Bean Blossom Township for fire protection, “we would obviously take that into deep consideration” when considering a vote on adding Ellettsville to the MFPD.

Ellettsville option

Under a proposed contract with the town of Ellettsville, Ellettsville would become the primary responder for fire and EMS calls in Bean Blossom Township starting in 2026. The township would make no cash payments in 2026 or 2027, but would transfer ownership of its existing firefighting equipment to Ellettsville. Starting in 2028, Bean Blossom would pay Ellettsville $90,000 annually, with future increases tied to the state’s maximum levy growth quotient, which is projected to be 4%.

According to the Baker Tilly analysis, the Ellettsville option has a kind of baked-in shortfall, because, according to Baker Tilly, Indiana law “does not allow new property-tax levies to be imposed to fund contractual fire service.” That means the township would have to cover the contractual costs by using existing fire revenues and cash reserves.

But Baker Tilly says that by 2028, projected annual fire receipts would fall short of the $90,000 payment, requiring drawdowns of reserves—a deficit that would be expected to get bigger over time, especially under the property-tax revenue reductions anticipated from SEA 1.

Monroe Fire Protection District option

If county commissioners vote to add Bean Blossom to the Monroe Fire Protection District effective in 2027, the township’s existing property taxes that fund fire protection would be eliminated and replaced with the same uniform fire tax rate that all MFPD members pay.

MFPD would staff the existing Bean Blossom station with two full-time firefighters on duty 24/7 and integrate the township into its countywide system of stations, personnel, and equipment. Baker Tilly estimates that Bean Blossom taxpayers currently pay the equivalent of about $0.0686 per $100 of assessed value for fire protection through township property taxes.

Under the MFPD proposal, to include Bean Blossom in the MFPD would require an additional $1.1 million. To generate that much additional revenue the projected 2027 MFPD rate, which is uniform across all members, would be $0.3588. The cost of fire protection for Bean Blossom property owners, would work out to $0.2902 more than they pay now ($0.3588–$0.0686). That works out to more than a fourfold increase in the amount Bean Blossom property owners currently pay for fire protection.

By comparison, taxpayers in other townships already within the MFPD would see estimated overall increases of about 5.5% in fire protection costs, because the new costs associated with Bean Blossom would be spread across a larger tax base. About half of the extra $1.1 million in needed additional revenue would come from other member townships besides Bean Blossom.

According to Baker Tilly, for a median-value home of $250,000 in Bean Blossom Township, the increase in the price for fire protection is estimated at about $355 per year, or about $30 per month, assuming the property is not already at a constitutional tax cap. Commercial and agricultural properties would see proportionally larger dollar increases tied to assessed value.

Supporters of the idea of adding Bean Blossom to the MFPD are likely to point to the fact that fire protection is only one component of a total property-tax bill. Materials provided by MFPD indicate that the expanded fire district would result in a 19% increase in the total property-tax bill for Bean Blossom Township properties.

The meeting of the county commissioners starts at 5 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 22, and includes the option of connecting through a remote electronic platform on Microsoft Teams.