HERMANN — The proposed creation of the Owensville Fire Protection District has generated a heightened interest in the April 8 ballot, says Gasconade County Clerk Lesa Lietzow.

“We’re fielding a lot of calls about that,” she told the County Commission Thursday morning, referring to the proposed creation of a public supported fire protection district that would reach from the southern end of the county to the Mt. Sterling area — and into a portion of Osage County — to the north.

The property-tax supported district would replace the hybrid public-private fire protection agency that has been in place for many years. Formation of a district also would leave the Hermann Fire Company as the only local non-publicly supported fire protection agency in the region, the county clerk said.

Lietzow, the county’s chief elections officer, told the Commission that her office has been contacted recently by Hermann Fire Company representatives with questions about the proposed new district’s boundaries and how it might affect the Hermann Fire Company’s service area.

The county clerk also explained that her staff is working hard to determine the residents that live within the proposed district to ensure their ability to vote. If a person actually lives within the proposed district, they get to vote. If they have property within the boundaries, but don’t live inside the district, they don’t get to vote.

“We’re working really hard to be sure we’re getting the right people voting on it,” she said. “We have to be sure that everyone whose house that sits in the Owensville District gets to vote on it.”

There will be a public forum on the proposed fire protection district at Mt. Sterling on Saturday, March 1. Lietzow said she strongly encouraged residents who live within the proposed district attend that meeting, or another one set for later on the southern end of the proposed district.

The proposed formation of a fire district is one of 18 items on the April 8 General Municipal Elections ballot, which includes several tax measures — such as the 30-cent property tax that would fund the new fire protection district, a half-cent sales tax proposal to help fund the Hermann Area Ambulance District and other revenue measures from the various public service agencies in the county,

“I’ve never had so many tax issues on an April ballot,” Lietzow told the Commission.

The ballot could be even busier except for a lack of interest in at least two boards in the northern portion of the county: The Gasconade County R-1 School District in Hermann has only two candidates for the two seats to be filled this April, which is the same situation for the city of Hermann, which has only two candidates for the two Board of Aldermen seats up this year. With the number of candidates the same as the number of seats to be filled, no election is necessary under state law.