The budget will reduce the fire tax for the average homeowner by $36
By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
LAMBERTVILLE — Voters have approved the Board of Fire Commissioners’ 2009 budget, elected two new commissioners and returned an incumbent commissioner to office.
Voters approved the $633,825 budget 77-41.
The budget will reduce the fire tax for the average homeowner by $36.
Incumbent commissioner and volunteer firefighter Nate Waldron won his second three-year term with 93 votes. He is treasurer of the Union Fire Company and secretary to the Board of Fire Commissioners.
Former Lambertville Sewerage Authority board Chairman Aladar G. Komjathy also won a three-year term with 89 votes. He will take a seat on the board that is being vacated by Robert Hayes, who decided not to seek re-election.
Alexander Cormier, co-owner of Rick’s restaurant in Lambertville, was elected to fill an unexpired two-year term. He won the seat 62-54 over volunteer firefighter and Iraqi war veteran Mitchell Ege Jr.
Only 112 voters went to the polls Saturday. That’s more than four times as many as the 27 who voted on the commission’s budget in 2008, but not even 5 percent of the city’s 3,099 registered voters.
Another 18 voters submitted absentee ballots, Business Administrator Mary Elizabeth Sheppard said.
The budget carries a tax levy, the amount raised through local taxation, of $486,149. The tax rate will be 6.6 cents per $100 of assessed value.
The owner of a house assessed at the average of $360,000 will pay $237.60 in fire tax.
Last year, with a tax rate of 7.7 cents per $100 of assessed value, the owner of a house assessed at the average of $360,000 paid $273.60.
The lower tax rate this year is the result of the commissioners’ acknowledgement of the effects of the souring economy on the city’s residents, according to Ms. Sheppard.
The commissioners were able to reduce the tax rate by putting aside less this year for the future purchase of a new engine for the Columbia Fire Company than they did last year. This year, the commissioners earmarked $225,000 for the engine, compared to $300,000 that was put aside for the purchase last year.
The board has about $600,000 in savings earmarked for the purchase. Ms. Sheppard has said she is unsure of the final cost of the purchase, which is scheduled for 2010.

