Senate Bill No. 312
(By Senators Schoonover and Holliday)
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[Introduced February 9, 1994;
referred to the Committee on Government Organization.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section three, article fifteen,
chapter eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to allowing
municipalities to offer fire protection services to property
within the county; and providing that when a municipality
provides fire services to any property outside the corporate
limits, it may provide the same fire services under contract
to other property within the state.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section three, article fifteen, chapter eight of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15. FIRE FIGHTING; FIRE COMPANIES AND DEPARTMENTS; CIVIL
SERVICE FOR PAID FIRE DEPARTMENTS.
§8-15-3. Municipalities empowered and authorized to contract for
prevention and extinguishment of fires beyond the corporate
limits.
(a) Any municipality may contract to render services in the
prevention and extinguishment of fires upon property located
within
the state. A municipality may contract beyond its
immediate boundary limit for fire service protection if fire
protection is provided in accordance with and under a rural fire
protection district plan based upon the fire suppression rating
schedule approved by the state insurance commissioner. All rural
fire protection district plans shall be approved by the state
fire commission. No rural fire protection district plan
providing for a municipality to contract beyond its boundary may
infringe upon an existing fire department's response area without
the written consent of the fire department providing fire
services for that area.
No contract entered into under the authority of this section
may operate to impose any greater obligation or liability upon
the municipality than that with respect to property within its
corporate limits. Nothing contained in this section may be
construed as requiring any municipality to contract to render
such services. A municipality providing fire services under
contract to any property outside its corporate limits may offer
fire service under contract to any property within the county if
the property owner requests the protection.
Any contract entered into under the authority of this
section, on or after the first day of July, one thousand nine
hundred sixty-nine, shall require the property owner to pay as
consideration for said services an annual payment, determined asprovided in the remainder of this subsection. If the
municipality does not impose a fire service fee on the users of
such service within the municipality as authorized in section
thirteen, article thirteen of this chapter, the annual payment
shall be equivalent to eighty percent of the annual tax levied
for current municipal purposes upon property within said
municipality of like assessed valuation to the property under
contract. If the municipality does impose a fire service fee on
the users of such service within the municipality, as authorized
in said section, the annual payment shall be equivalent to the
amount of fire service fee which would be imposed if the property
under contract were located within the municipality plus at least
fifty percent of the annual tax levied for current municipal
purposes upon property within said municipality of like assessed
valuation to the property under contract. No contract entered
into under the authority of this section, and nothing herein
contained, may be construed as requiring or permitting any
municipality to install or maintain any special additional
apparatus or equipment beyond that necessary for the protection
of property within its corporate limits.
(b) The annual payments due under any such contract are
payable on or before the first day of October of each calendar
year in which such contract remains in effect, or upon such day
as may be hereinafter provided as the due date of the first
installment of ad valorem taxes. If any annual payment is in
default for a period of more than thirty days, it shall bearinterest at the same rate as that provided for delinquent
property taxes and shall be a lien upon the property under
contract if a notice of such lien is recorded in the proper deed
of trust book in the office of the clerk of the county commission
of the county in which such property or the major portion thereof
is located. Such lien is void at the expiration of two years
after such defaulted annual payment became due, unless within
such two-year period a civil action seeking equitable relief to
enforce the lien was instituted by the municipality. The
municipality may by civil action collect any annual payment and
the interest thereon at any time within five years after such
payment became due; and upon default in any annual payment, the
municipality may cancel the contract involved.
(c) Any contract made under the authority of this section
shall inure to the benefit of and be binding upon the successors
in title of the person making the same contract; and such person,
upon conveying the property subject to such contract, is no
longer liable under such contract, except as to annual payments
which were due prior to the conveyance and which remain unpaid.
(d) Any property owner may cancel any such contract with
respect to the property of such owner upon giving a thirty-day
written notice to the municipality, if the owner is not in
default with respect to any annual payment due thereunder, except
that if such notice is given subsequent to the first day of July
of any calendar year, the next succeeding annual payment shall be
made by the property owner as soon as the amount thereof isascertainable. Upon cancellation as aforesaid, the municipality
shall deliver to the property owner a recordable release
discharging such owner and such property from any further lien or
obligation with respect to the annual payments. The annual
payments due under any such contract shall be made to the
officials as the municipality, in the contract, designates to
receive them, who likewise may receive notice of cancellation and
execute upon behalf of the municipality the release for which
provision is hereinbefore made.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow a municipality
to offer fire protection services to property within the county
and providing that when a municipality provides fire services to
any property outside the corporate limits it may provide, when
requested, the same fire services under contract to other
property within the state.)