The city of Cedar Falls is under threat of having its ISO rating, which impacts insurance rates for property owners, lowered from a 3 to a 4.
But the city has been working throughout 2018 to keep the rating as is.
The Insurance Service Office informed Cedar Falls it is prepared to drop the rating, but has given the city until February to make improvements to retain its level 3 classification.
The ISO is part of Verisk Analytics, a private corporation that collects data on fire departments and assigns a numerical rating based on a city’s fire suppression capabilities. It is based on a 100-point scale with 10 classifications, a 10 being the worst and a 1 being the best.
It is ammunition for the Cedar Falls firefighters union, which opposes the city’s Public Safety Officer program and wants more full-time firefighters hired rather than cross-trained police/fire officers.
“Hopefully, the citizens can see how hiring more professional firefighters increases the city’s ISO rating at less than half the cost of hiring more PSOs,” said Scott Dix, Cedar Falls Fire Local 1366 president.