Request By:
Mr. Stanley M. Billingsley
Attorney at Law
439 Main Street
Carrollton, Kentucky 41008
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of August 8 in which you relate that you represent the volunteer fire department of the city of Sanders [a city of the sixth class] which has been included in the Ghent Fire Protection District organized pursuant to KRS 75.010. Your question appears to be whether or not a volunteer fire department district can be created pursuant to the referred to statute [which presumably would include the city of Sanders] and thereby supersede the authority of the existing fire protection district within its area of jurisdiction.
From your letter it is not clear as to the nature of the volunteer fire department of the city of Sanders. In many instances the so-called volunteer fire department is in fact the city fire department rather than a private corporate body. If the referred to department is in fact a city fire department [which is authorized under the general charter of sixth class cities, Ch. 88 KRS and KRS 88.180 authorizing the appointment of a fire chief], the Ghent Fire Protection District would have no jurisdiction within the city. See KRS 75.010 (2) which reads as follows:
"(2) In no event shall any fire protection or any volunteer fire department district include within its metes and bounds any territory at that time or thereafter included in any city of this commonwealth which maintains a 'regular fire department, ' and which city has paid its proportionate share of the indebtedness incurred while such territory was a part of that district."
Also, reference is made to subsections (2) and (3) of KRS 75.020, portions of which read as follows:
"(2) . . . The property in any territory stricken off from a fire protection district or a volunteer fire department district by the incorporation of or annexation by a city of this commonwealth shall not be relieved of liability of such taxes as may be necessary to pay its proportionate share of the indebtedness incurred while such territory was a part of that district. . . ."
"(3) Any city that maintains a 'regular fire department, ' and has either by incorporation or annexation caused property to be stricken from a fire protection or a volunteer fire department district, may assume the liability of such taxes as may be necessary to pay the proportional share of the indebtedness incurred while such territory was a part of said district."
With respect to your basic question, we find no authority under either KRS 75.010 or 75.020 which permits a volunteer fire department district to be created within the same jurisdictional area of an existing fire protection district. On the other hand, if the city does not have a fire department, it certainly can create one pursuant to its general powers and pursuant to the quoted sections of the above statutes assume fire protection jurisdiction though it would not at the same time be relieved of its proportionate share of indebtedness incurred while the territory within the city was a part of the fire protection district.