For those of you who live in Dwight, you may have read the two articles in yesterday’s edition of the “The Paper” which announced the upcoming Dwight Fire Protection District referendum measures that will be placed on the March 20th ballot.

There will be TWO questions posed to our voters at the upcoming election. Question one refers to increasing the DFPD corporate tax levy rate to .40% (currently .2993%) and the second question refers to allowing DFPD to levy for a rescue tax to .10% (currently not levied). Until this year, the DFPD has never asked taxpayers to pass a referendum for a tax increase.

The money generated from these levies would be used to provide round-the-clock staffing at the fire station. The revenue collected would be used to staff a fire engine with 3 firefighters/EMTs. Currently, our department relies solely on volunteer personnel to respond to emergencies. Our call volume has increased by over 200% in the last 6 years and, combined with the fact that many of our firefighters do not live in Dwight, we are having a difficult time answering calls. Over the last two years, there have been 89 call responses that were delayed over 10 minutes due to lack of manpower and another 44 calls that had to be handled by neighboring fire departments since no firefighters were available in Dwight.

Passing both referendum measures would change the DFPD portion of property taxes paid on a $100,000 home by $69 a year or $0.19 per day.
We plan on holding several community discussions on the referendum topic over the next month. Next week, please check the Dwight Paper for an insert explaining the referendum details. You will also be receiving information regarding the referendum via U.S Mail. Please check our Facebook page as well as this website, Dwightfire.org, for additional details.