CONTACT:

Jeffrey P. Hunt

660-477-3456

jeffreyhunt@tightwadfpd.org      

Tightwad FPD Media Release 20260716.pdf

          TIGHTWAD, MO – Residents, business owners, and local governments within

five road miles of the Tightwad Fire Protection District’s (District) Tightwad Station

may now experience property insurance premium reductions upwards of 25%,

depending on the insurer and property. The property insurance savings follows the 

official upgrade of the Insurance Services Office’s (ISO) Public Protection

Classification (PPC) for the District’s Tightwad Station from Class 10 to Class 9,

serving the Fire Suppression Area (FSA) of all properties within five road miles of the

fire station in Tightwad.

          The District President Jeffrey P. Hunt explains, “The previous Class 10 rating

indicated the fire suppression program for the area did not meet minimum criteria,

resulting in the highest property insurance rates. Properties within our District beyond

five road miles of the Tightwad Station —within the Coal FSA—remain at Class 10,

though we are actively working toward achieving a Class 9 or better throughout the

District.”

          The District is confident the acquisition of a second properly equipped fire

engine within approximately the next 12 months will result in a PPC upgrade of the

Coal FSA to Class 9. Additionally, the District is confident that a potential Class 8B

upgrade exists throughout the District. An upgrade to Class 8B requires the District

to provide a minimum of six personnel responding to structure fires—compared to four

personnel for Class 9—and document a minimum of two hours per month of fire

training—compared to one hour per month for Class 9. The District needs additional

personnel willing to provide their time and service--interested applicants can visit

www.tightwadfpd.org/join-us to download an application. 

          The upgraded PPC rating reflects investments in the improvement of the

District’s fire protection posture beginning in 2021 with an extremely generous

$10,000 donation from Charles L. and Stacy Willis for the purchase of the District’s first

properly equipped fire engine, and the public trust and confidence of the citizens of the

District resulted in a voter-approved ½% sales tax in 2022. Half of that sales tax

revenue reduced property taxes by 22% while the remainder funded operational

improvements that contributed to the upgraded PPC rating.

          The District credits the initial members of the 17th Board of Directors—

Rodney E. Goslin, Ernest (Roy) Evans, and the late Randy Mock, who placed the ½%

sales tax on the  ballot and funded improvements. Additional credit is awarded to

subsequent members of the 17th, 18th, and 19th Board of Directors—Jeffrey P. Hunt,

Mae Nelson, Charles L. Willis, John Kinder, and Mary Malan.

          The District also expresses sincere gratitude for the efforts of Chief Josh Kihn,

Assistant Chief David Nelson, former Chief Charles L. Willis, and former Assistant

Chief Mary Malan for their efforts in improving the operations posture of the District

through their acquisition of equipment, radios, apparatus, personal protective 

equipment, and turnout gear—often through donations and pursuit of grants.

Furthermore, the District expresses special thanks to Harold “Skip” Starling at the

National Fire Services Office for the generosity of his time, travel, and expertise

regarding ISO PPCs.

          On November 3rd, voters of the District will have another opportunity to

demonstrate their confidence and support of the District’s mission to upgrade the

ISO PPC rating for the Coal FSA to Class 9, and eventually Class 8B for the entire

District. Voters will be asked to approve an additional ½% sales tax and a 1% use

tax for online sales allowing local merchants to compete fairly with online retailers.  

Based on the average increase of sales tax collected between 2023 and 2025,

approval of the additional sales tax is projected to provide over $57,000 for the

District, and the local use tax is projected to provide over $13,000 for the District. 

Half of the sales tax collected will be used to reduce property taxes paid by residents

of the District another 20-25%.

          Providing updated personal protective equipment and turnout gear to ensure the

safety and wellbeing of the District’s generous volunteers remains a top priority of the

Board, however properly equipping each firefighter comes with a $5,000-$7,000

expense. Furthermore, an increase in personnel willing to donate their time as

volunteers drives the need to purchase additional radios to ensure adequate

communication between personnel operating on emergency scenes. The District is

grateful for the support, trust, confidence, and generosity expressed by the voters of

the District, as demonstrated by the achievement of the upgrade to ISO PPC Class 9

for the Tightwad Station FSA. It  is the sincere hope of the Board that the proven

results of achieving this goal will result in an increase in the number of volunteers and

the approval of the proposed tax questions by the voters during the November

election.

          The all-volunteer Tightwad Fire Protection District provides emergency services

to the 45 square mile Leesville Township in southeast Henry County.

          ISO’s PPC program provides important, up-to-date information about fire

protection services throughout the country by collecting and evaluating information

from 38,000 communities in the United States on their structure fire suppression 

capabilities.  The data is analyzed to assign a PPC class to a particular community. As

of 2023, only 933 communities are Class 10, 5,009 communities are Class 9, and most

of the communities —21,902 —between Class 4 and Class 6.

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