LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (WDAF) — High Prairie Township is wanting fire protection from its own fire district, but right now there’s no arrangement for it to happen, from the county, past the end of year.
“450,000 of tax dollars from us, that we can’t tell them how to spend it,” Kathleen Williams, High Prairie Township’s treasurer, said.
“It would be a contract for service; they would spend the dollars the way they found would be best. We would not have any say in it, and again, it’s not guaranteed service.”
That’s if Fire District 1 in Leavenworth County isn’t supervised by High Prairie Township. If not, a recent lawsuit says it will essentially be left in the dark.
Williams keeps track of the money in the High Prairie Township.
“As of right now, the three entities are still under Fire District 1. But come January 1, it will no longer be that way. Delaware Township and the City of Lansing will go off and become the City of Lansing Fire Department,” Kathleen Williams said.
“We all could have stayed as Fire District 1. It was working. It was awesome,” she added.
Several years ago, the City of Lansing gave notice of its intent to terminate the inter-local agreement. It set to expire at the end of this year. High Prairie Township wants to remain in Fire District One, where it’s been since 2004.
“There is money at the bottom of it. High Prairie Township would be paying $433,000 to the City of Lansing for fire protection if we did a contract for service.”
Williams doesn’t believe there’s enough staff to make sure her area is covered too, if it were to contract services.
“We feel that they would not be able to give us the fire service that we need. If there is a fire already in Delaware or in Lansing, and we are having a fire, we have no fire protection. We would have to go out to mutual aid, automatic aid, in order to get other fire departments to come in and fight our battle which then that’s the delay in fire service,” Williams shared.
High Prairie Township’s Treasurer, Kathleen Williams, wants to keep their tax dollars in their township.
“We will have control over it. We will be able to listen to our constituents and say how it’s to be spent. In the assets, we will be receiving two fire engines, a brush truck and some other pieces of equipment, which will be pertinent to the types of fires that we have out in the county.”
A few of those constituents spoke at a recent Board of County Commissioners meeting.
“As High Prairie Township Clerk, we wish Lansing and Delaware all the great success to become the number one rated fire department, just not at the expense of High Prairie Township,” one constituent shared via public comment.
Willams said that some of Fire Station #2 was paid for by High Prairie Township. It’s where she and FOX4 met Tuesday.
“It’s going to happen no matter what, Dec. 31, Fire District 1 will go away at midnight, kind of like Cinderella. We hope we have a fairy godmother out there somewhere that will allow our pumpkin to become our firehouse, and we have our engines to fulfill the service out here for our constituents,” she added. “We just want our dream to come true as well.”
FOX4 reached out to the board of commissioners in Leavenworth County and was told that the board is waiting for the research into the law before commenting any further.
