Editor’s Opinion Ed Ballam

It’s January, and by now, most municipalities are deep into their budget cycles, planning for expenditures to come up in the 2023/2024 fiscal year.

It’s a process that takes up to six months and culminates with either the voters or the city councilors voting to approve funding for anticipated expenses into the near and often far future. Oh, and for those who might not know, the fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. It doesn’t follow the calendar year. Many municipalities follow fiscal year budgeting.

One thing to be certain about is those making the decisions on fire department budgets had better put in more than they think they’ll need and then a little more on top of that, because everything connected with the fire service industry has gotten even more expensive.

As we learned from a variety of fire industry leaders in last month’s issue, the fire service is not immune from all the influences that affect the economy, including inflation and labor and supply chain issues. Together, those all make for more expensive products and longer wait times.

To compensate for those increases in prices and delivery times, government types will have to budget more money to accommodate those factors. Coming up short of funds when it’s time to place an order for anything from a pair of gloves to a $2 million aerial will make for a bad day, to say the least.

Let’s not forget paid/career fire departments. It’s a fact that up to 90 percent of a career department’s budget goes toward payroll. And, like all workers in every sector of the economy, firefighters and EMS providers are not immune from inflation. They’ll need increasingly larger cost of living adjustments just to maintain their present status. That will increase the bottom line of the budget in a hurry.

Much of any public service budget is nondiscretionary, such as payroll. But there are lots of other factors that fire and emergency medical services (EMS) officers can’t do much about either, like cost of diesel fuel, which at the time of this writing is hovering around $6 per gallon, and insurance costs. Add to that list building maintenance and heating and cooling costs, vehicle upgrades and repairs, replenishing of essential goods and equipment, as well as debt services for payments on previous purchases.

Factoring in inflation has always been part of any budgetary exercise, but it seems even more pressing this year than ever. Government officials from selectboard members to city council presidents to the mayors all have an obligation to strike a balance between a balanced budget with a reasonable tax rate and ensuring firefighters and EMS providers have what they need to do their jobs safely.

Given all the signs that are out there, it would behoove those budget builders and those crunching municipal numbers to boost the budgets for emergency services. It will be a challenge to accommodate those almost certain increases without driving the tax rates through the roofs.

Helping to make any tax increase more palatable is the fact that most fire departments nationwide enjoy a 95 percent favorable rating among those populations served. Firefighters and EMS workers have achieved almost universal hero status, and whatever they need they usually get. Before you start writing letters in disagreement, I get that it’s not like that everywhere. There are some tyrannical mayors and selectboard members who chronically stick things in the wheel spokes to derail public fire service; from my experience, those are the excep

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Video shows a firefighter stepping out of a Warwick Fire Department ladder truck on Monday and leading a dog on a leash toward the address of a dog grooming business called Ahead of the Pack, BostonGlobe.com reported.

Rob Cote, a Warwick resident who has been an outspoken critic of payments for unused Warwick firefighter sick time, said he took the video at 12:52 p.m. on Samuel Gorton Avenue, the report said.

He said he’d previously seen Warwick fire trucks idling and unattended for long periods of time outside the Presto Strange O Cafe, a coffee shop on Warwick Neck Avenue, according to the report. So when he spotted a ladder truck on Monday he decided to follow it to see if it would go to that coffee shop, the report said.

In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, Fire Chief Peter K. McMichael said, “Upon reviewing the report of inappropriate use of a department vehicle on 1/16/2023, it has been determined that there was a violation of department policy and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.”

McMichael said the violation involves “the approved shopping policy, enacted by the Board of Public Safety in January 2016, to govern the use of fire apparatus for stores, pharmacies, and other businesses.” He said the dog is not owned by the department, and the names of firefighters involved in personnel matters are not made public.

Dan Sokil
The Reporter
(TNS)

Jan. 16—UPPER GWYNEDD — A plan that could help shape the future of the Upper Gwynedd Fire Department could be unveiled soon.

Township Manager Sandra Brookley Zadell announced last week that a study evaluating sites for a potential new fire station is nearly complete.

“I spoke with the consultant a couple weeks ago, and he was finishing it up, and giving it to DCED, who does the study, and they should be issuing it to us in the next couple of weeks,” she said.

In March 2022 fire company leadership asked the commissioners to authorize a study examining options for a new station, and said they were encountering aging infrastructure, a need for more space, and stricter standards for equipment, training, and maintenance at their current station, located on Garfield Avenue and parts of which date as far back as 1942.

Later that month the board authorized a letter of intent to contact the state Governor’s Center for Local Government Services to perform a study of the current station and make recommendations, with vetting via the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development.

During the March presentation, fire company leadership said they were looking at several options for the location of a new station, including near the current one on Garfield Avenue or elsewhere in the township, and gave no firm estimate for the cost. In August, the manager gave an update and said the study personnel had recently conducted a site visit, and on Monday night she gave another, saying the finished report could be made public soon.

Land development update

The board also heard several updates during their Jan. 9 meeting about land development projects in various stages of approval.

In December the township’s zoning hearing board approved a request for a special exception at 1010 Church Road to allow a daycare facility, and to allow a reduced parking setback and two façade signs otherwise not allowed by township codes, according to planning and zoning officer Van Rieker.

“It’s that single building that sort of sits by itself at Pennbrook Parkway — that was approved,” he said.

Also approved on Dec. 21 was a request by the owners of 1180 Church Road to allow a gymnastics facility moving from another location in the township, Rieker told the board. Two items were slated to be heard by the township’s planning commission on Jan. 11: one, approval of a land development plan for construction of ten twin dwelling units at Moyer Road and West Point Pike, with a newly added overflow parking area; the other, a subdivision plan to change the sizes of two adjacent lots on the 600 block of Sumneytown Pike.

In response to a resident question, Rieker also gave an update about a property maintenance issue on a home on South Broad Street near Garfield Avenue, which he said staff have “been watching for about ten years, since it was a greenhouse.” A new owner has recently taken over that property, Rieker told the board, and staff have been in contact with the new owner about trash and a lack of maintenance on the property.

“It’s a slow process, we’re not happy with it, but he says he’s going to clean up all of the brush, and the trees, and the debris,” he said.

Staff have also been in talks with the owner about the occupancy of that property, and staff “believe that is not currently being occupied as an acceptable single-family dwelling,” occupied by only one family or family equivalent, Rieker said, and have explained the relevant local and federal rules to the new owner.

“We’re allowing so