Mayor: Borough ‘already paying more than its fair share’
By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
ALLENTOWN — Borough officials say they see “no rational basis” for Upper Freehold Township’s request for $50,000 more per year for firefighters’ salaries as well as a retroactive payment of nearly $500,000.
Upper Freehold CFO Dianne Kelly hand-delivered a letter from the Township Committee addressed to the mayor and Borough Council of Allentown on Feb. 22 that threatened legal action if the borough didn’t increase its annual contribution and pay a $486,189 “unpaid balance” for fire equipment and salaries associated with six career firefighters that were incurred between 2006 and 2010.
The Hope Fire Company of Allentown, which is actually in Upper Freehold now, operates without a fire tax and depends on donations and money from the two communities it serves. Upper Freehold serves as lead agency under an interlocal government agreement signed with Allentown eight years ago, but that pact expired in 2005.
The letter from Upper Freehold states that the township is shouldering 82 percent of the firefighters’ salaries and benefits, and says the expense should be split evenly between the two communities.
Mayor Stuart Fierstein and Council President Michael Schumacher said last week that the council had met with its attorney in executive session March 8 and decided it could not comply with Upper Freehold’s demands for more money. They said the borough’s public safety committee would be willing to meet with township officials face-to-face to try and resolve the financial dispute.
”Whether you use a formula based on property values, population, the number of dwellings or usage, Allentown is already paying more than its fair share,” Mayor Fierstein said last week when asked about the impasse.
”There is no rational basis for this request,” he said.
Mayor Fierstein said the Upper Freehold letter did not include the fact that the borough paid $34,500 in direct aid to the fire company in 2010 for items such as fuel, electricity, mortgage payments on the firehouse and equipment. This is in addition to the $67,059 that Allentown paid to Upper Freehold as the borough’s share of the cost for career firefighters’ salaries, health benefits, pension, equipment and other associated expenses. Together these two budgetary contributions total 22 percent of the total cost of operating the Hope Fire Company in 2010, he said.
By comparison, Allentown represents 14 percent of the tax base, 21 percent of the combined population of the two communities and 17.3 percent of the calls last year to the Hope Fire Company (excluding mutual aid calls to other communities, the NJ Turnpike, or the high school campus on High Street where children from both communities attend classes), Mr. Schumacher said.
”If Allentown’s annual payments have consistently exceed both its percentage of use and percentage of the tax base, how can they ask for half of the prior year’s expenses?” Mr. Schumacher asked.
The interlocal agreement signed by the communities in 2003, which has since expired, had required Allentown to pay 50 percent of the cost of the first paid driver for the Fire Department and up to $30,000 for additional employees, Mayor Fierstein said. He said the borough had not signed a subsequent agreement because the arrangement was supposed to be temporary, not permanent.
”This was supposed to be a transition, not a lifestyle,” Mayor Fierstein said.
Upper Freehold Mayor LoriSue Mount could not be reached Tuesday before the Messenger-Press deadline. Township CFO Dianne Kelly said Tuesday that no lawsuit had been filed since the original letter was delivered to Allentown.
A study prepared in 2001 for the two communities by fire protection consultant Harry Carter recommended the creation of a single fire district encompassing both Allentown and Upper Freehold with authority to create one fire budget and set a fire tax to fairly allocate costs. The levy would be collected using a common tax rate per $100 in assessed valuation.
Dr. Carter wrote in his report that the advantage of a fire district is that it would be able to “strike a balance between a township that is growing, and a borough that is essentially built-out.”
The report also discussed alternatives to an independent fire district, but warned that whatever route is taken requires the creation of a “stable funding base” to cover the Fire Department’s operational costs.
”I would doubt that sufficient resolve exists to allow for an adequate funding base to emerge just based on agreements,” Dr. Carter wrote.

