ST. GEORGE - Members of the St. George Firefighters union are demanding answers from the chief about a fire station promised more than a decade ago.

They calculate $20 million of tax payer money has been collected with no new fire facility to show for it.

On Halloween weekend in 2014, a space heater fire destroyed a home in the back of the University Club subdivision off Nicholson Drive.

"In the back of U Club, we burned a house down. The response time, which hasn't changed, is around 15-20 minutes from the nearest station," said Jason Turner, president of Local 4524 and former St. George firefighter. He says after the loss of that home, there was a major push to get a closer fire station built.

WBRZ interviewed Chief Gerard Tarleton about it in 2015. "One of the areas we need an additional station is in the Nicholson/Bluebonnet area. We have some long response times there. That would help solve the problem," he said.

The answer to the problem was a new tax to raise money for its construction.

In 2015, voters passed a property tax increase for $2 million a year over the next 10 years.

"To date, station's still not there," said Turner.

It's been 10 years since the tax was passed and there are no signs of any construction.

Chief Tarleton says over the years there have been issues determining exactly where to build the station and the COVID pandemic messed up their timeline of acquiring property.

In 2018, voters again approved a 10-year extension on that tax, but Tarleton says the tax isn't expressly for the new station.

"There's money for the station in the milage, but the milage is not specific to the funding of that station. There's no tax being put into a bank account for that station," Tarleton said.

He says the tax money raised over those years has gone toward other projects, something Turner acknowledges.

"They've had some renovation. We've had some mold issues, they remodeled the administration so they could move the city of St. George stuff into there," said Turner.

Tarleton says they are very close to working out an agreement with a developer to donate the property to them. They hope to have an update in a month or so.