Lambertville’s fire election will be held at the Justice Center, 25 S. Union St.
By John Tredrea, Special Writer
LAMBERTVILLE City voters can go to the polls Saturday to vote on a proposed 2014 Lambertville fire district budget and candidates for the Board of Fire Commissioners.
Fire district elections will be held statewide from 2-9 p.m. on Feb. 15. Lambertville’s fire election will be held at the Justice Center, 25 S. Union St.
Aladar Komjathy, chairman of the Lambertville Board of Fire Commissioners said that, due a long-term decline in the numbers of volunteer firefighters, the city is consolidating its fire-fighting services.
”Three fire companies Union, Fleetwing and Columbia are now housed in the Union Station house, on North Main Street,” he said.
”Columbia was the most recent to move there, from their house on North Union Street. We moved one Columbia truck to the Union station in October and another on Jan. 1. The Union station is more centrally located than where Union was before, and this arrangement makes more sense economically.”
Declining volunteerism in firefighting is a nationwide trend.
Meanwhile, voter approval of the Lambertville fire district’s proposed 2014 budget would bring a small fire tax increase up one-tenth of a cent per $100 of assessed property value over last year’s tax, said Mr. Komjathy.
Included in this year’s proposed budget, he noted, is a new ladder truck. The one-tenth of a cent increase would bring the city’s fire tax rate to 7 and two-tenths cents.
Mr. Komjathy said this year’s proposed budget calls for $1,337,046. Of that amount, $524,664 would be raised by city property taxes this year, up slightly from the $514,000 that was raised by property taxes last year.
The portion of this year’s budget not covered by 2014 property taxes is to be drawn from the fire district’s capital reserve account. That money would pay for the new ladder truck.
”We’ve been saving for that truck and putting the money for it in our capital reserve account,” Mr. Komjathy said.
THERE ARE two candidates, both running unopposed, for seats on the Board of Fire Commissioners. Incumbent Catherine White is running for a three-year term. Paul Rotoni is running to complete the last two years of the unexpired term of the late Robert Brown Sr.
The fire commission meets at 7:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month. Those meetings are open to the public