County fire president douses Fried’s flames

Says East Windsor is protected

By Vic Monaco, Managing Editor
   For a second week in a row, a fire official has doused political flames being fanned by Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried in regard to fire protection in East Windsor.
   Mayor Fried this week sent the Herald a copy of an e-mail sent last week by David Maher, president of the Mercer County Active Fire Chiefs, to East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov expressing his concern over the “lack of fire protection and response times” in East Windsor.
   In the e-mail, Mr. Maher also said Mayor Fried’s recently stated plan to start charging East Windsor for mutual aid would set a “dangerous precedent” and he offered to provide his assistance to work out the issue between the two towns.
   However, Mr. Maher said Wednesday that he made a mistake by taking Mayor Fried’s word on the situation and that Mayor Fried failed to also forward to the Herald a copy of a second e-mail he had quickly sent the same day to Mayor Mironov apologizing to her.
   After sending the first e-mail, Mr. Maher said he checked with Jim McCann, chief of East Windsor Volunteer Company No. 1 and Mercer County Central, which dispatches fire calls, and felt assured that Mayor Fried was wrong.
   ”There is no problem with either fire protection or response times. That’s what Dave Fried was telling me,” Mr. Maher said.
   The first e-mail was dated Aug. 27; the second Aug. 29. But Mr. Maher said both were sent Aug. 29. Both were copied to Mayor Fried, according to Mr. Maher and copies obtained by the Herald.
   Mr. Maher said in his second letter, “The real issue that is at hand is that of one town wanting to charge another town for mutual aid service. I feel that this is out of line and sets a dangerous precedent. ”As the governor of New Jersey keeps saying, we need to start using shared services between towns, and we in the fire service have been doing that for years with the mutual aid agreements. My sole goal in all this is to assure that all of the towns are working together and that we come to a common goal of utilizing the resources that we have.”
   In a phone interview Wednesday, Mr. Maher called Mayor Fried’s plan to start billing East Windsor in January “ridiculous.”
   ”How would he feel if Hamilton Township sent him bills for mutual aid?” said Mr. Maher, who has served as a deputy chief in Hamilton for about six years.
   Mayor Fried replied Thursday by saying such billing “happens every day.”
   ”I don’t have any idea what would be dangerous about sending a bill,” he added. “Perhaps someone would get a paper cut when they receive it.”
   What is dangerous, Mayor Fried claimed, is when a town doesn’t use the “closest equipment” and waits for volunteers instead of first calling a paid fire department, like the one in Robbinsville.
   The billing issue could become moot. East Windsor EMS Coordinator and Police Chief William Spain said Aug. 26 that, as a result of Mayor Fried’s comments, East Windsor had decided to immediately stop calling Robbinsville for mutual aid on first-alarm calls from five of six call boxes served by Company No. 1, one of two volunteer companies in the township. He said the change “should eliminate the vast majority” of mutual aid calls to Robbinsville.
   Chief Spain also sought to assure residents that the change, which reflected the way things had been done just a few years ago, will not affect fire protection.
   Mr. Maher said he was upset with Mayor Fried for sharing with the press an e-mail that he thought was private. Mayor Mironov also has criticized Mayor Fried for sharing his letters to her with the press, and has characterized his claim of her ignoring his attempts to discuss the issue as a lie. Mayor Mironov said this week that she had nothing further to say about Mayor Fried’s claims.
   Mayor Fried said Thursday he is legally obligated to share such correspondence with the press when they formally request it. But the Herald made no request for the correspondence he sent. Mayor Fried did not explain why he didn’t also forward the apology e-mail but claimed Mr. Maher only sent that one after talking to Mayor Mironov.
   Mr. Maher said later Thursday that he has never talked to Mayor Mironov.
   Last week Mayor Fried claimed that East Windsor was “burning Hightstown (volunteer firefighters) out” by redirecting mutual aid calls away from Robbinsville’s paid department in retaliation for his plan to start billing East Windsor.
   But Hightstown Fire Chief John Archer immediately refuted that.
   Mayor Fried said Thursday, “I am done with this issue. I have done what I should do. Which is bring it up and if they want to use our service ask them to pay.”