Tuckahoe Fire Truck Purchase Still Needs Approval

TUCKAHOE – In April, residents of Upper Township Fire District No. 2 approved the purchase of a $600,000 fire truck. The standard process following the vote would have been for the fire district to take the matter to the state’s Local Finance Board for approval.
Instead, a lack of clarity on what needed to be done meant the proposed purchase was not placed on the finance board’s agenda by the district. As the Herald reported (https://bit.ly/3tbnc1x), an anonymous letter went to the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) objecting to the way the purchase was handled.
State law authorizes municipalities to adopt an ordinance creating a fire district in a defined territory of the municipality. The fire district is governed by a board of fire commissioners selected by the voters in an annual election. The district submits a yearly budget to the voters. That budget provides the basis for a special district tax.
Each fire district is responsible for fire prevention and suppression within its boundaries and often accomplishes that end through a contract with a volunteer fire company. Fire district activities are monitored by DCA. The actions of the independent fire company are not.
The fire district, in this case, Upper Township Fire District No. 2, can seek state approval and subsequently purchase the fire truck in some form of financed arrangement. The district’s contract with Tuckahoe Volunteer Fire Company does not allow the district to give the taxpayer funds to the independent company for purchase of the truck. The asset, the fire truck, should properly be an asset of the district, which, in turn, allows the fire company to use it.
An April 29 post by the Tuckahoe Volunteer Fire Company announcing the purchase of the truck has since been removed from the company’s Facebook page. In the post, which contained drawings of the new equipment, the fire company said it “signed paperwork to move forward on building this beauty.”
A phone number on the fire commissioner’s website is no longer in service. There has been no reply to email inquiries. The situation appears to be one of confusion over state procedure.
As of the end of August, the fire district has not made public how it plans to accomplish the purchase. The item has not yet appeared on any agenda of the Local Finance Board.