Kingfisher Lions Club members had the opportunity last Thursday to ask Fire Chief Tony Stewart a myriad of questions regarding a sales tax proposition on a May 11 ballot.

The proposition is asking City of Kingfisher voters to pass a one-half cent sales tax that would last 10 years.

If approved, the sales tax would first fund a new fire department building.

The remainder would go toward infrastructure improvements throughout the city.

The current department building is approaching 50 years old.

“Our building hasn’t grown, but we have,” Stewart said. “We’ve exploded out of it, but we make it work because that’s what we have.”

It’s estimated the sales tax would generate about $6.5 million.

When asked, Stewart said he didn’t have an estimate on how much of that it would take to construct a new fire department building.

He said the cost of the land would play a big part in that and, also, no construction plans have been drawn up.

“We’re not going to spend thousands of dollars on plans until we know we’re going to have the funding,” he said. “We’re not going to put the cart before the horse.”

Stewart did say the new building would not be any further north than the current one (corner of Main and Bowman) nor would it be any further south than Will Rogers Drive.

“My biggest worry (for fires) is downtown,” he said of the older structures not up to current code. “That’s a tinder box down there.”

Stewart requested that Lions Club members visit the Facebook page called “City of Kingfisher FIRE Sales Tax,” which he said contains a lot of useful information for the voting public.