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1316 COUNTY-CITY BUILDING <br />227 W. JEFFERSON BOULEVARD <br />SOUTH BEND, INDIANA 46601-1830 <br />CITY OF SOUTH BEND STEPHEN J. LUECKE~ MAYOR <br />DEPARTMENT OF PUBLICWORKS <br />GARY A. GILOT~ P.E. <br />DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS <br />March 5, 2002 <br />City Council President Roland Kelly <br />City Council <br />4`'' Floor, County-City Building <br />South Bend, Indiana 46601 <br />PHONE 219/235-9251 <br />Fax 219/235-9171 <br />TDD 219/235-5567 <br />RE: Ordinance Transferring Public Fire Protection from the Property Tax Bill to the Water Bill <br />Dear President Kelly: <br />The South Bend Water Works provides water supply for potable drinking water, process <br />water to support business and industry, water for lawn sprinkling and other forms of irrigation, and <br />for public fire protection. It has been the trend in the industry that fire hydrant rental for public fire <br />protection be moved from a governmental tax supported service to a water rate supported service. <br />The General Assembly provided statutory authority for this several years ago. The Indiana Utility <br />Regulatory Commission (IURC) provided for an abbreviated rate case that was expressly for this <br />purpose with a very narrowly defined formula on how to do such a revenue neutral rate case <br />transferring the costs of Public Fire Protection from the property tax payer to the water rate payer. <br />The attached Ordinance would enact a water service fee for public fire protection. The term <br />"fire hydrant rental" is actually a bit of a misnomer since what is really covered in this cost in this <br />rental rate is the cost to pump the water from the ground, put it into storage facilities, and push it out <br />into the distribution system at adequate flows and pressures to meet the Fire Department's needs. <br />The Fire Department is a critical element of the City maintaining its ISO Rating. Likewise, the <br />public fire protection system is critical to that ISO Rating. The storage tanks, the high service <br />pumps, hydrants at appropriate spacing and other appurtenances necessary to produce adequate flow <br />and pressure to fight fires are essential to our ISO rating and therefore, to people's property fire <br />insurance premiums. Nothing in this Ordinance would do anything to adversely affect the high level <br />of service that the people of South Bend have come to enjoy. We are only changing from a tax to <br />a user fee. <br />ENGINEERING ENVIItONMENTAL SERVICES CENTRAL SERVICES STREETS WATER WORKS <br />CARL LrrrRELL, P.E. JOHN J. DILLON, PH.D. MATT CHLEBOWSKI SAM HENSLEY JOHN F. STANCATI <br />219/235-9251 219/277-8515 219/235-9316 219/235-9244 219/235-9322 <br />Fax 219/235-9171 Fax 219/277-8980 Fax 219/235-9007 Fax 219/235-9272 Fax 219/235-9728 <br />