KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers eastern Jackson County, including Blue Springs and Grain Valley. Share your story idea with Claire.
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The Southern Jackson County Fire Protection District is moving forward with a new fire station and expanded staffing after voters approved a half-cent sales tax last April, with the district anticipating roughly $1.42 million in annual collections.
Fire Chief Bill Large said the district is working with Fogel Anderson on a design-build of Station 4, located on the south side of the district off Smart Road. The station is expected to open in 2027.
Large said the extra revenue from the sales tax will go toward hiring personnel to staff both existing stations and the new one.
The district is basing its revenue projections on collections from the neighboring city of Lake Lotawana, which sits across the street from part of the district's service area.
"Based on what we've seen with the City of Lotawana, who's right across the street, and we protect that area, they're collecting almost $1.4 million on half-cent sales tax," Large said. "So we're anticipating 1.4 or higher because we have other businesses that they don't given our district size versus the city size."
Under the tax structure, a quarter cent of the half-cent sales tax will be returned to residents by reducing the district's levy rate by an equivalent amount. Large said that leaves the district with roughly $1 million in net new revenue.
The new station is being built to address response time challenges south of U.S. Highway 50, an area Large said has historically required longer routes or highway crossings to reach.
"Our current response times are anywhere from six to eight minutes down there," Large said. "We're going to cut those down. That particular area — that fire station's within two miles of that area — so we'll be within two and a half to three minutes within that area."
Large said the district's average response time across the rest of its coverage area is currently 3 to 4 minutes.
The south side of the district has also seen significant residential and commercial growth, which Large cited as another reason for the new station's location.
"Right now we have a Woodlawn subdivision. It's pushing 1,000 homes. There's more phases of that to come," Large said. "Another developer just bought land that they're going to put more subdivisions in."
The district is still in the early stages of seeing sales tax revenue come in. Large said the process of getting the tax established with the Missouri Department of Revenue takes about three months, and distributions are further delayed because businesses pay on different schedules — monthly, quarterly, or annually.
"It's going to take us six months to a year to see what the full effect of our sales tax is and revenue streams," Large said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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