vidalia &8212; Monday night the Concordia Parish Police Jury approved a tax election in Monterey, which could result in an increase in property taxes in the town.

On Monday the jury approved a tax election to raise the millage rate for Monterey from three mills to 10 mills on property taxes to provide the town&8217;s volunteer fire department about $50,000 to help pay for improvements said Chief Jim Graves.

Graves said it takes $10,000 per year to maintain the fire department in Monterey and because of the current millage rate, the department only gets about $18,000 per year.

&8220;Some of our air packs are over 20 years old and have duct tape holding them together,&8221; Graves said. &8220;And one of our fire stations is 40 years old and needs an upgrade.&8221;

Graves said also the department needs money to earn a higher ranking from the Property Insurance Association of Louisiana.

Recently the department was rated a seven on a scale from one to 10, one being the highest.

&8220;For a department our size, a seven is pretty good but we were shy of a six by 1.24 points,&8221; Graves said. &8220;If we were to get this extra money, I know we would rate a six during the next test.&8221;

Police Jury Secretary Russell Wagoner said the vote for the increase in millage rate would be on Nov. 2 and the vote would increase the rate for 10 years, after which another vote could extend it for another 10 years.

In other business:

4 The jury approved a motion to keep the millage rate for Concordia Parish at 2.37 mills for 2006-2007.

4 The jury approved a motion to send a letter of support to the Concordia Sewer District supporting them to ask for grant money to buy a piece of farm equipment.