Public work session to focus on fire funding
Fairfield Twp. trustees will discuss financial solutions to help department's needs.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Fairfield Twp. is taking steps to ensure funding stays on pace with its increasingly busy fire department.
Trustees agreed during their Tuesday, March 11, meeting to conduct a 5 p.m. work session at township's administration building, 6032 Morris Road, prior to their regularly scheduled March 25 meeting.
Extras
The session, which is open to the public, is expected to include an examination of the financial solutions that might help the fire department's equipment, staffing and structural needs, including replacing a fire station on Tylersville Road as old as the department itself. Fire Chief David Downie.
"That whole complex is in dire need of repairs," he said, calling the cramped, 60-year-old station "an eyesore."
The fire department's 2008 budget is $2.3 million, Downie said. However, 3 mil and 2 mil fire levies voters approved in 2000 only bring in $1.5 million each year. Carryover from 2007 is $750,700 but projected to be only $272,123 from this year into 2009.
Trustee President Mark Sutton suggested measuring the next several years worth of needs to see if the township's general fund could cover the cost.
"Right now, I have a problem going back to the voters to get more money when we have it," Sutton said. "What we did as a board was try to commit to make this levy last for 10 years and not hinder the service we're trying to provide."
Downie said the completion of several area infrastructure upgrades would only boost the volume of fire and EMS calls, which have increased by 34 percent since 2000.
He said he believes residents would support a levy if trustees decided to put it on the ballot this year.
"Hopefully, they'd recognize the importance of fire and EMS services and understand the amount of growth that we've had, the amount of run volume we've had and that we've been conservative with the money these past eight years," he said.
