By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
Voters in Millstone and Plumsted townships have the opportunity to elect fire commissioners and vote on proposed fire budgets Saturday during the annual fire district elections.
Both communities are proposing budgets with slight increases in the tax levy that would mean less than a penny hike in the fire tax rate. In Millstone, the impact would be about $22 more a year for a home assessed at the townshipwide average and in Plumsted it would be about $28. Polls are open Saturday, Feb. 19, from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Robbinsville, Allentown and Upper Freehold do not use fire-taxing districts to fund their fire departments.
Millstone
In Millstone, the Board of Fire Commissioners is asking voters to approve a $1.7 million total budget for 2011 with a $1.5 million tax levy. The budget, which meets all requirements of the state’s new 2 percent cap law, raises the tax rate by less than a half-cent from $0.081 to $0.085 per $100 in assessed value.
Commissioner David Markunas, the board’s vice chairman, described the proposed tax increase as “modest,” noting it would raise the fire tax on the average Millstone home assessed at $511,000 by about $22 a year.
”We had to balance the need for a very modest tax increase against the need to avoid serious cuts in service that would have meant longer response times that would have been harmful to the community,” Mr. Markunas said Sunday.
The Millstone Fire District has eight full-time career firefighters, down two from 2010 staffing levels. The department has been using per diem firefighters, when available, so that there are five people per shift whenever possible instead of four. The department has 23 active volunteers, two fewer than the prior year.
During 2010, the department had a 54 percent increase in calls, with 701 reported incidents, including 83 mutual aid calls from nearby communities. The Millstone calls included 10 structural fires and 102 motor vehicle accidents, 23 brush fires, 79 downed electrical lines and six HazMat incidents. The department also completed 454 fire inspections and 104 smoke detector inspections.
Mr. Markunas said the steep increase in fire calls and higher costs made crafting the proposed budget challenging. Operational costs, including insurance, pension obligations, equipment and fuel keep rising, he said.
There are three people running unopposed for election to the Board of Fire Commissioners in the Feb. 19 election. Jeff VanArsdale, the current commission secretary, is running for a full three-year term. Thomas F. Banyacski, a volunteer firefighter, also is running for three-year term, and Ronald P. Gesualdo, the father of two volunteer officers in the district, is running for a one-year unexpired term to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of former Commissioner Donna Penn.
The current commission chairman, Paul Boegeman, is not seeking re-election to the board, Mr. Markunas said.
The fire commissioners planned to give a PowerPoint presentation about the proposed budget during the Feb. 16 Township Committee, which was scheduled to occur after The Messenger-Press had already gone to print. Mr. Markunas said residents would be able to watch the televised rebroadcast of that presentation on Channel 77, the public access broadcast channel for Cablevision customers.
The Millstone fire budget also can be viewed online on the Board of Fire Commissioners website at www.mtbfc.com.
Plumsted
The Plumsted Board of Fire Commissioners is proposing a $1.4 million fire budget, with a tax levy of $1.1 million. If approved, the fire tax rate would increase by nine-tenths of a penny from $0.099 to $0.108 per $100 in assessed value.
Aaron Heller, chairman of the fire commissioners, said Sunday the proposed fire budget does not exceed the state-mandated 2 percent cap on levy increases and there are no additional spending questions on the ballot this year.
Plumsted Tax Collector Danielle Peacock said Monday that the average assessed value of a home in the township has dropped to $378,600 from $384,000. This means a $0.009 increase in the fire tax rate will cost a resident whose home is assessed at the new township average about $28 more a year in fire taxes in 2011.
The fire district has 11 paid career firefighters and 40 volunteers. The district also provides a full-time fire inspector and career EMTs from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week, Mr. Heller said.
The nearly 1-cent increase in the tax rate was needed to cover contractually obligated items such as salaries and health benefits, Mr. Heller said. The commissioners were able to hold the line on other operational spending items because of some creative budgeting, he said.
For example, even though the cost of fuel has risen, the fire district is saving money on fuel because it has entered into a shared services agreement with the North Hanover School District that has actually lowered the cost of fuel by about 30 cents a gallon for the fire district, Mr. Heller said.
The commissioners also have moved to reduce operational costs by sending a firefighter, who was an experienced mechanic, to school for specialized training and certification to work on fire engines. This has allowed the district to keep routine maintenance and simple vehicle repairs in-house.
”He’s done things like brake jobs, changing fluids, repairing the fuel tank all things that would cost us a lot more for labor if we sent the work out to a garage,” Mr. Heller said.
There also are two incumbent Plumsted fire commissioners running uncontested for re-election Saturday. Both Gene Pullen and Marven Howell are seeking full, three-year terms.
