ALBION – The Albion and Gaines town boards, and the Albion Village Board met this evening at the Albion Village Office to redo their votes from April 24 when the three municipalities voted to form the Albion Joint Fire District.
The boards again voted in favor of the joint fire district. However, the vote this evening doesn’t name five fire commissioners. They were to serve from July 1 until an election in December.
The three boards are expected to appoint the temporary commissioners in the near future. The Albion and Gaines boards will each get two representatives with one from the village to be named by the Albion Village Board.
The five commissioners named on April 24 include Al Cheverie and Gary Mumford to represent the Town of Gaines. The Village of Albion had one representative, former village trustee David Buczek. The Town of Albion had two representatives, Chuck Nesbitt and Jeremy Babcock. Cheverie and Babcock are current members of the Albion Fire Department.
Joyce Riley, deputy mayor for the village, said the names were suggested by fire department leaders. Some community members want the boards to pick the representatives, Riley said.
“The people spoke and we listened,” she said after a 6-minute meeting at the Village Office.
The boards are discussing the process of appointing people, whether there will be applications from community members or recommendations from the fire department, or other ways.
There was some criticism in the community since the April 24 meeting that the village was only to have one representative, but more than one of the five initial appointees were village residents.
Richard Remley, the Albion town supervisor, said he isn’t committed to having the town’s two representatives both live outside the village in the town. Part of the village is in the town of Albion, and another part is in the town of Gaines.
“The quality of the person is more important to me than the residence,” Remley said after this evening’s meeting.
He would like to have some of the initial commissioners be familiar with the workings of as fire department, fire equipment and apparatus.
The Albion and Gaines boards vote this evening to form the joint fire district starts the 30-day clock to force a permissive referendum for residents who want to bring the issue to a public vote. Some residents have been vocal about their concern with a much bigger budget for fire protection, something Albion Fire Department officials say is needed whether it’s through a fire district or the current model.
The community has been getting fire protection from the Albion Fire Department. The towns of Albion and Gaines pay the village a fire protection contract for the service outside the village.
The new joint district will be its own taxing entity, with its own elected fire commissioners. It will replace the current setup where the Albion Fire Department is part of the Albion village budget, with the Albion Village Board serving as a commissioners overseeing the department and determining its funding.
The new joint fire protection district would likely have an annual budget of about $750,000 to $850,000. That is more than double the current $350,000 for the fire department.
That amount is much too low and doesn’t include any money for reserve funds to help pay for fire trucks and equipment, John Papponetti, the deputy fire chief, said during a public hearing on April 24 at the LGI in the high school.
With an $850,000 budget the tax rates for fire protection would change from the current 93 cents per $1,000 in Albion and 80 cents in Gaines to about $2.00 for the two towns and village, according to the presentation from Papponetti.
If the joint district stands – with or without a referendum – it would take effect on Jan. 1. That’s when it would start with its own budget, and the joint district would own the fire trucks and equipment. The village is keeping the fire hall on Platt Street and will lease the space to the fire district.
The first five commissioners are expected to serve about six months. If the joint fire district goes forward, there will be an election for five fire commissioners in December. In that first election, the candidate with the most votes gets a five-year term, then the fourth most gets four years, down to the candidate with the fifth-most votes getting a one-year term.
After that first election, there will be an election for just one position for a five-year term in the following years.
The three municipal boards this evening also voted to empower the joint fire district to have the power to acquire real property or easements without permission of the Albion Village Board, the Albion Town Board or the Gaines Town Board.
By Mary Richards, FNP, Oak Orchard Health at Warsaw
