Fire District Rule Changes

Changes to the Town Law will take effect next year that will alter the timeline by which fire districts submit their budgets to towns. Under the new regime, the Board of Fire Commissioners must hold a public hearing on their proposed budget on the third Tuesday of October, then submit their final budget to the town by November 20 i.e. very late in the town budget cycle. It won't make much difference in the end, just don't expect to have your fire district budgets quite so early next year. Furthermore, fire district secretaries are now required to submit to the town clerk notice of any hearing or election to be held by the fire commissioners, and the clerk is required to cooperate by posting the notices on the town bulletin board and website, if any. The latter requirement may be onerous in towns where the clerk is not able to update the town website easily.