By David Kilby, Special Writer
The borough plans to begin a bonding process to cover costs for fire services that were determined to be outstanding by a state Superior Court earlier this month.
At its meeting July 22, the Allentown Borough Council initiated the process for going to the state local finance board for consideration of a pay out of the $175,000 settlement, a pay out that ideally would not affect the borough’s annual budget.
”We’re requesting five years,” Mayor Stuart Fierstein said in an interview. “We expect to push to get the mediation (on the rate) scheduled.”
”This is not a matter between the Hope Fire Company and the borough of Allentown,” Mayor Fierstein said. “Allentown provides 25 percent (of the fire service fees). It’s not something that is desirable for either town. It would have been more desirable for it to be all volunteer,” he added, explaining that the issue of cost reached a critical point when three full-time firefighters were hired.
He said the borough has had arguments with Upper Freehold Township over what would constitute a fair cost for fire coverage for Allentown.
The borough is 13 percent of the value between the two towns, and Upper Freehold has six times as many structures as Allentown. Also, Upper Freehold’s population is four times that of the borough, and its size is 40 times that of the borough, he said.
”They (the township) proposed we should pay half of all fire costs,” the mayor said. “And we were paying 20 to 22 percent, 50 percent more than we have to.”
When the borough and township couldn’t agree on a fair cost for fire services, Upper Freehold went through a non-binding arbitration to try and settle the matter.
”Then we went to court for arbitration,” Mayor Fierstein said. “The judge that handled the arbitration did not consider the facts that everybody else did.”
He said the township and borough have shared different fire service costs over the years, splitting the bills in various ways.
”The only thing that is settled is the past,” he said regarding the $175,000 settlement. “The future is only set for the next six months…. There won’t be any new agreement until we have gone through this process. The current rate for the next six months is not necessarily fair,” he added, stating that the borough is looking to schedule a mediation where it will show the numbers again.
”We want this cleared up because we begin budgeting for next year in October,” he said.
The borough agreed to pay up to 30 percent of the salaries for the three additional employees.
”When they said they would hire more (firefighters), we offered up to $50,000,” the mayor said. “They (the township) said they wanted an additional $50,000. It couldn’t be fair. This is not fire service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is a 40-hour week paid staff.”
These costs don’t take into account the work of the volunteer firefighters.
”The volunteers are crucial,” Mayor Fierstein said. “If we don’t have volunteers we could have a $2 million fire budget. The borough’s portion would be $500,000. We don’t spend that on the entire police department.”
The mayor said the borough is simply asking for a fair deal.
”We’re not talking about a bizarre formula that comes out of someone’s head and makes no sense,” he said.
Upper Freehold Mayor Lori Sue Mount could not be reached for comment before press time.

