On Monday evening, Darlington County Council passed the third and final reading on an ordinance that will allow the Darlington County Fire District to borrow up to $2.1 million for improvements.
“We started this process roughly 2 years ago… [The] primary thing that we are trying to replace with this millage increase is all of our breathing apparatus,” mentioned Chief Kenny Stratton.
The district operates 12 fire stations and four fire sub-stations.
It covers roughly 400 square miles that stretches from towns like Lamar to Society Hill.
“So you know, it’s a challenge…We found out that we had three areas in our county that were actually having citizens that live outside of that 5 road millage,” said Stratton.
A couple of years back, the district started the process with a 1 mill tax increase, with the ordinance it would add an additional 4 mills.
So on average, if you have a house valued at $100,000 it’ll be about $20 more on the firefighting taxes a year.
“We have about 7 1988 tankers now,” Stratton stated.
The district is also looking into getting new tankers too.
This ordinance was placed on a voter referendum back in November, which passed.
