Officials ponder SPLOST reallocation to improve county fire rating

ALBANY — Many Dougherty County property owners may soon see reduced fire insurance premiums thanks to a new plan to improve the county’s insurance ratings.

The Dougherty County Board of Commissioners heard a proposal at its regular work session Monday from Albany Fire Department Chief James Carswell and County Administrator Richard Crowdis to purchase four new service truck/hose tenders and 24,000 feet of reflective, lightweight fire hose.

If approved, the new trucks and hoses would be used to better service certain areas of the county and potentially lower the Insurance Services Office (ISO) ratings of those areas from a nine to a two, which should then lead to reduced insurance premiums for those property owners.

According to Carswell, one of the components that impacts ISO ratings is a fire department’s ability to move a certain quantity of water over certain distances. This can be done either by having water in tankers, having more water access points such as fire hydrants or increasing the length of hoses used to transport the water.

Based on current ISO ratings structure, properties within 1000 feet or a fire hydrant or other viable water source were given better ratings than properties farther away. However, if fire departments are able to move a sufficient amount of water in a certain amount of time to areas outside that range, the ratings could be improved.

“We started doing research and we found some places in the country where, under certain conditions, ISO was giving up to 8,000 feet from a fire hydrant,” Carswell said. “With traditional five inch hose we can lay a water line from the nearest hydrant and we can lay up to 8,000 feet and ISO give credit for it. In essence ISO doesn’t necessarily care how you get the water there, whether it’s hydrants, water shuttling or extended hose lay, you just have to perform. You have to run at least 250 gallons for two hours to the end point, so it’s 250 gallons a minute for two hours, which is 30,000 gallons.”

Funding of the project would cost approximately $654,000. The lowest qualifying bid on the four trucks is $476,880, which would come from SPLOST VI. The proposed cost of the 24,000 feet of hose needed to outfit the trucks is $177,000. Officials say $87,000 of that was budgeted as part of SPLOST VI and the remaining $90,000 would come from a reallocation of funds from SPLOST V left over from the current Gillionville Road widening project.

Crowdis explained that because SPLOST V also allowed for fire station improvements, the commission could reallocate left over funds from the Gillionville Road project to the purchase of the hoses to go along with the trucks being purchased as part of SPLOST VI.

“We also had county fire station improvements so in SPLOST V we’re looking at where can we pick up (the extra funds),” Crowdis explained. “In SPLOST V the Gillionville Road project is basically complete. But we have a balance of about $290,000 in SPLOST V so our recommendation is to reallocate from the Gillionville Road widening in SPLOST V to the fire station improvements.”

If approved, the four new trucks would each carry 6,000 feet of hose which would more than adequately cover the needed hose lay distance to improve the overall ISO ratings, Carswell said.

Based on fire department estimates, there are more than 800 properties in the county that would fall within five miles of a fire station and also be covered by the hose lay, thus gaining the class two ratings.

Carswell said that in the past when additional water lines were run into the county, some properties saw a similar affect and the improvement in rating led to a significant reduction in insurance premiums. Carswell said that the fire department was aware of some residential property owners that saw savings of $1,000 annually on premiums, with some businesses and churches seeing a reduction of $10,000 annually.

“That is very significant,” Carswell said. “We know that at least 800 properties will be affected by this, meaning their ISO rating would go from a nine to a two. Traditionally that’s about a 50 percent savings. We calculated a $1,000 savings per property, so that’s $800,000 a year and the service life on this equipment is 10 years plus, so it’s about an $80 million dollar return on a $600,000 investment.”

Carswell pointed out that if the proposal goes through and the fire department is able to improve coverage in 85 percent of the service area, the ISO will also rate the remaining 15 percent the same way, meaning the project could yield a ratings improvement for the entire service area covered by the county’s fire departments.

“They have an 85 percent rule,” Carswell said. “If you effectively cover 85 percent of the protected class (ISO) gives you the other 15 percent. So if we could pull this off and get credit for it and exceed over 85 percent of the coverage area, (ISO would) give us the other 15 percent off.”

Although the board won’t vote on the proposal until it’s next regular meeting, some board members said they were in favor of the idea.

“This to me is very exciting,” said Lamar Hudgins. “This is exciting in that property owners will save a lot of money, plus they’ll have better protection. And we’re not looking at a millage increase or anything. This is a good use of SPLOST.”