Since the beginning of the year, the South River Rescue Squad and the South River Borough Council have been negotiating back and forth to strike a deal which would allow the squad to become a borough department.
If an agreement is reached, the squad will receive $25,000 from the borough this year instead of the usual $10,000 donation. It would also receive vouchers for purchases.
However, the sticking point is the length of the time the borough will lease the squad’s building and equipment back to the volunteers. The council is offering a 99-year lease that would be renewed each year automatically, unless both the squad and the governing body agree to terminate the arrangement. However, the squad wants a 99-year nonrenewable lease.
In fact, according to Mike Ayers, the president of the squad, that is what its attorney and its members thought they were getting when the council approved the proposal last month. However, the proposal — which was not on the agenda for the July 19 meeting and which the council members did not have a final copy of — calls for the council’s option.
The proposal was approved by the council, with three councilmen voting yes and three councilmen abstaining from the vote. The question is why all six members didn’t abstain.
The item was not on the agenda, which means the public did not have a chance to discuss it during the public comment portion for agenda items. In addition, three members voted for a proposal that, in fact, they did not see a final copy of.
The issue has already been debated for several months. Would holding the vote off until this month’s meeting really hurt the matter? This would have allowed everybody time to review the final proposal and comment on it once and for all.