Fire officials are set to meet with the Township Committee to discuss their budget after voters shot down their $1.8 million spending plan.
By James McEvoy, Managing Editor
PLUMSTED — Fire officials are set to meet with the Township Committee to discuss their budget after voters shot down their $1.8 million spending plan last Saturday.
According to Vic Seidman, chairman of the township’s Board of Fire Commissioners, 124 residents voted against the budget while 73 voted in favor of it. In addition, there were 15 absentee votes against the budget and 10 for it.
”We really didn’t talk about it or discuss it yet among each other,” Mr. Seidman said of the budget results. “We just need to take a look at where we potentially might cut (in the budget) and we have to obviously meet with the township.”
He said they are scheduled to discuss the budget with the Township Committee at the March 5 committee meeting.
According to the Plumsted Township Fire District website, voters also voted down the 2013 budget by a 226-141 margin.
According to budget documents on the website, the 2014 budget, while being smaller than its $2.08 million predecessor, would have included a larger tax levy, which was set to increase from $1.4 million last year to a proposed $1.54 million.
As a result, the proposed tax rate would have been 0.1984 cents per $100 of assessed value compared to last year’s rate of 0.1840, thus if the budget were approved, the owner of home assessed at the township average of $275,900, would have paid $546 in fire taxes.
Also in the Feb. 15 election, Gene Pullen was elected to serve a three-year term as fire commissioner.
The budget vote came approximately a week and a half after voters similarly voted against a referendum that, if approved, would have authorized the Plumsted Township Fire District to purchase land to expand the New Egypt Firehouse on Main Street.
According to fire officials, 355 residents voted against the referendum with 179 supporting it.
Mr. Seidman previously told The Messenger-Press he was disheartened by the vote, calling it a “good opportunity for the future of the town.”
”But people (didn’t) see it that way,” he said.
The referendum, which would have entailed constructing a new firehouse to house both the fire and first aid operations, was estimated by officials to cost $480,000, which would have resulted in an average taxpayer facing a $250 tax increase over the next decade.
The referendum only asked voters to decide whether to authorize the property purchase. Specific expansion or construction proposals were not involved in the vote.
In 2002, the Plumsted Township Fire District commissioned a fire study in which Dr. Harry R. Carter, an expert in the field, ultimately recommended a new structure.
The effort came on the heels of another failed attempt to lobby public support to purchase land on Route 528 and construct a brand new, state-of-the-art facility.
Fire officials previously said $180,000 in funds once set aside for a substation that was never built, could have also been used for the expansion.