LENOIR, NC (December 14, 2017)…Local Allstate Agent Sandy Russ recently presented a Blue Ribbon Award to the Lenoir Fire Department for the department’s work to achieve a Class 3 rating. The Class 3 rating reduces property insurance rates in Lenoir and makes the city more competitive in attracting new businesses and residents.
“For 12 years, since I have been an agent, the City of Lenoir has had an ISO rating of Class 4,” Russ said. “Earlier this year we noticed a change from 4 to 3, and I thought there was an error in our system.”
Russ said she contacted her tech support to confirm the change, and they did confirm the City of Lenoir now has a Class 3 rating. Russ was surprised that she didn’t know about the improvement.
“I couldn’t believe that our rating had improved from a 4 to a 3,” Russ said. “I just couldn’t believe that I didn’t know about it.”
The new rating took effect in January of this year, but it’s taken some time for the news to spread. When Russ learned about the new rating and the time and effort that went into getting Class 3, she decided to present an award to the Lenoir Fire Department to “show them our gratitude for their hard work.”
“A lower rating means lower insurance rates for the same coverage, and we want folks to know that their insurance rates will be lower thanks to this new rating,” Russ said. “Chief Ken Briscoe and Assistant Chief Ken Hair are so valuable to our community and we really appreciate the hard work they do.”
The Lenoir Fire Department had been a Class 4 fire department since the 1970s. The class rating is based on several criteria including the water system, communications system, and the fire department. Briscoe said the City has been working a long time to improve those systems and earn the better Class 3 rating.
“The new rating helps us three ways – it helps our homeowners and tax payers in the City of Lenoir, because they have a lower homeowner’s insurance rate; it helps our business owners, because they all will have a lower insurance rating; and it shows how effective the city fire department is in Lenoir,” Briscoe said. ““This was a city-wide effort, and it’s something we’re very proud of.”
Briscoe said the new rating is another marketing tool for the City. New retail businesses and manufacturing will pay a lower insurance rate in Lenoir than they would in the county or neighboring cities with a higher rating.
“There aren’t many fire departments in the state that have a Class 3 or lower rating,” Briscoe said. “All our current industries and business should have seen a drop in their insurance rates when we went from a Class 4 to Class 3.”