Announcements

Osceola County, Florida – Osceola County Fire Chief Rich Collins and staff hosted a community meeting last night to discuss Osceola County Fire Rescue's budget, levels of service and the proposed fire assessment fees for 2010-2011.

The Chief was pleased to announce that the fire assessment rates that will be recommended to the Board of County Commissioners next week will be lower than the rates indicated on the TRIM notice in most assessment categories. Decreases will occur in many classifications as a result of the updating of data records in conjunction with the latest property tax roll information. "County staff and community partners have worked diligently to provide a fair and equitable funding mechanism for providing fire service" said Chief Collins. "We are pleased we are able to recommend a rate structure that provides a lower fire assessment for many property owners."

The proposed assessment rate changes include a decrease in the residential classification rates from the TRIM notice rate of $184.19 to $163.22, representing an 11.4% decrease. Commercial property owners will realize a rate decrease of 14.1%, or $0.2870 per square foot as opposed to the noticed rates of $0.3340. A complete rate comparison by classification is included in the chart below.

The final public hearing to adopt the fire assessment rates will be held on Tuesday, September 7, 2010 at 5:05 p.m. in the Osceola County Commission Chambers located at 1 Courthouse Square, in downtown Kissimmee, Florida. For those unable to attend in person, the meeting will be streamed live and may be viewed on the County's website at www.osceola.org and click on "Live Board Meetings & Agendas" on the upper left hand side.

For more information on the fire assessment program please call 407-742-7000 for assistance or visit the County's website at www.osceola.org and click on "Fire Assessment Program" link under the Hot Topics section of the homepage.

"Keep Osceola Beautiful"