FIRE COMMISSION CONTEST IS A FIRST:

The contest for an open seat on the Greenfield Board of Fire Commissioners is between an incumbent and, for the first time in the district's 60-year history, a non-firefighter.

Bob Hyndman, 47, of Denton Road, said he is running because he thinks the commissioners should communicate better with the public and be more accountable to taxpayers. He is challenging Tom Robarge, 40, a firefighter for 22 years from Bockes Road.

The vote is 6 to 9 p.m. next Tuesday at the Maple Avenue and Greenfield Center fire stations.

Hyndman's interest in the district began when he learned only 160 people of the more than 10,000 who live in the district voted last year in a special election to establish a pension fund for the volunteer firefighters. The move raised taxes in the district by 48 percent. The budget for next year is $597,590. The tax rate will increase from $1.13 to $1.36 per thousand dollars assessed property value.

"The pension is water under the bridge," said Hyndman, who said he isn't opposed to the firefighters having a pension. "The bigger issue for me was no one knew about it."

There will never be a high level of participation in fire district elections as long as they are held in December i.e. at a bad time for weather in many parts of the state and in a separate time and place from regular elections. I represent rural fire districts that routinely have only 10 or 15 people vote and most of them are firefighters.

Posted by Joel Seachrist at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by Joel Seachrist at 08:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TOWN COUNCIL ADOPTS KNOX-BOX LAW:

The Plattsburgh Town Council recently adopted a local law requiring Knox-Box secure key systems to provide firefighters quicker access to buildings in possible emergency situations.
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The systems are required for buildings with automatic fire-suppression or standpipe systems that are not staffed 24 hours a day seven days a week and those with automatic fire alarms.

Buildings that use hazardous materials or that are required to prepare emergency-services material safety data sheets or hazardous-chemical inventory forms are required to also keep pertinent documents stored in a document vault.

The law applies to commercial, industrial, multi-family residential, apartment, government, educational, nursing care, churches and other at-risk buildings.

It doesn't apply to owner-occupied one- and two-family dwellings or individual townhouse units. Those owners can elect to take part, though, by meeting with the town codes-enforcement officer and their district's fire chief.

Buildings required to install a system have one year from the effective date of the law, which takes effect once it is received at the State Records and Law Bureau at the New York State Department of State.
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Lamoy said the law also enables volunteer firefighters from the five departments whose districts are in the Town of Plattsburgh — Cadyville, Cumberland Head, District 3, Morrisonville and South Plattsburgh — to spend less time waiting for a key holder to allow access to buildings during a false alarm.

"Our volunteers spend an incredible amount of time training and responding to real emergencies. Any time we can get them back quicker to their families, back in bed, back to work or back to the dinner table is time and money well spent," Lamoy said.

According to a price list available on the company Web site, prices start at $189.

"The best part is the cost of a Knox-Box is really minimal," Lamoy said. "If a fire department had to break into a building just one time (instead), the cost of a Knox-Box would be paid for and more," Lamoy said.

Posted by Joel Seachrist at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ELMA CONSIDERS IMPROVING PENSION PROGRAM FOR FIREFIGHTERS:

Elma officials decided to look into improving the town's pension program for volunteer firefighters at a work session Wednesday evening.

Supervisor Michael Nolan said the town needs a post-entitlement program to retain younger volunteers. It would allow firemen 65 and older to continue as firefighters while collecting from their pensions.

The current fire service award program that started in 1992 under former Supervisor John DiJoseph, with Nolan's help, called for a limit of a $400 donation by the town for each eligible firemen with a cap of 20 years of service.

"We need to extend the program to help these younger firemen stay with the fire companies," Nolan said. "This extension will also help prevent any age discrimination suits [such] as other towns across the state are dealing with."

Posted by Joel Seachrist at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AUDIT: OVERSIGHT WAS INSUFFICIENT:

A state audit of the Fly Creek fire district indicated that previous boards failed to follow their own policies and had a general lack of oversight of money that was being spent.

The New York State Comptroller's Office audit of the Fly Creek fire district was released to the public Monday afternoon and examined the records for the period of January 1, 2004 through September 29, 2005.

According to the audit report: "We found that in certain aspects, the board did not adhere to or establish appropriate internal controls. More specifically, the board did not follow its own policy regarding the audit and approval of claims; segregate or at least oversee the duties of treasurer; ensure that the treasurer maintained complete accounting records and routinely performed bank reconciliations; annually audit the records and reports of the treasurer; and did not adopt an investment policy to ensure district moneys were properly invested and safeguarded."

The audit cited 39 claims which were not itemized, totaling $8,076 and three claims where $39 in sales tax were approved for payment even though the district is exempt from paying sales tax. The audit also cited one claim with only one board member's signature.

Posted by Joel Seachrist at 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MORIAH FIRE CONSOLIDATION NIXED:

Consolidating Moriah's three fire departments won't save taxpayers any money was the consensus reached at a community forum Thursday night.

What might raise more money would be to absorb fire-protection areas in the town into either of the two fire districts, which are taxing bodies.

Moriah and Mineville-Witherbee fire departments have their own fire districts, governed by elected fire commissioners who set tax levies for the districts. Port Henry Fire Department is owned by the Village of Port Henry, which includes fire-protection service in its municipal budget.

The Moriah Town Council convened the consolidation forum Thursday night to determine if merging the three departments into one district with one tax rate would benefit residents.

Posted by Joel Seachrist at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)