Fire District 3 residents unanimously approved a $3.9 million budget for the next fiscal year at a socially distanced meeting on May 3. 

Despite a nearly $600,000 increase on last year’s budget, taxpayers in Fire District No. 3 will only see their annual bills rise by one penny, according to district treasurer Joan Brennan.

That’s because $273,000 for replacing the roof on the district’s Hixville fire station and $647,000 for a new fire engine and Ford truck will come out of surplus revenue and the vehicle replacement funds instead of the district’s tax levy.

The station roof is in “dramatic disrepair,” Brennan noted, while the district’s current Engine 3 is more than two decades old, although still fully functional.

“It just went out on a call,” she said, looking fondly at the 1998 fire engine. “They take really good care of their vehicles.”

According to Brennan, District 3 residents will see their tax bills “go up by a cent or not go up at all.”

“There’s no need to increase [taxes] when we have the money sitting in surplus,” she said.

$3 million will come out of the tax levy, including compensation for district officials and firefighters, general expenses, and bond payments for the Cross Road fire station renovations completed in 2015.