BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
HOWELL — A pension plan for the township’s first aid volunteers was approved by voters on Nov. 4 through a binding public referendum. The Length of Service Awards Program (LOSAP) for emergency service volunteers was approved by a vote of 3,408 to 2,420.
The cost to taxpayers has been put at $10 per year for a resident whose home has an assessed value of $200,000.
Mayor Timothy J. Konopka said he was glad voters had "made the right decision" by approving LOSAP. He said support for LOSAP shows first-aiders they are appreciated by giving a "slight compensation to our volunteers."
Konopka said the volunteers are motivated by altruism, which is why they do what they do without any promise of economic compensation. However, he said, LOSAP is an "added motivation."
"Without our volunteers we would have to pay for the services they provide out of altruism," Konopka said.
Former Mayor Suzanne Veitengruber headed the committee that developed the LOSAP ordinance. She said Howell’s five fire districts all have a pension program in place for their volunteers. Speaking after Election Day, Veitengruber stressed the importance of getting and keeping first aid volunteers and how LOSAP will help accomplish both.
"I’m absolutely thrilled that people saw how important it was to keep our volunteers so they can continue to answer our emergency calls," she said.
Veitengruber said anyone who wants to learn firsthand the importance of first-aiders should go to one of the three squad buildings and help out for a day.
"Even if it’s just to help around the building," she said. "People forget it’s not just running out to an emergency call in the middle of the night; it’s maintaining the facilities and equipment every day."
Volunteers will become vested in the pension program by way of a point system after five years of active service in any one of the township’s three first aid squads — the Howell First Aid Squad, the Howell-Farmingdale First Aid Squad or the Ramtown First Aid Squad. A volunteer’s LOSAP eligibility starts following the first year of active service, she said. It will take five years for an active first aid member to become vested in the plan.
2004 will be the first official point year for volunteers. Payments into the fund will start with the 2005 municipal budget.
Veitengruber has put Howell’s cost for the pension program at $1,265 per year per qualified member, for an approximate total annual expenditure of $143,000.
In January of each year, the captain and president of each first aid squad will certify the number of calls dispatched to each squad. Percentage requirements for response points for each member will be determined for each squad.
Veitengruber said that in order for a volunteer to qualify for inclusion in the pension plan, he or she will have to have accrued 100 points over the course of a calendar year. Pension benefits will be payable to a volunteer following 10 years of volunteer service.