Albion village tells Gaines fire protection contract terminated Aug. 31

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 April 2016 at 12:00 am

File photo by Tom Rivers – Albion firefighters respond to this fire in Gaines on Oct. 25 at a house owned by Watt Farms at 3161 Oak Orchard Rd.

ALBION – The Village Board has notified Gaines Town Supervisor Carol Culhane that the village will terminate a fire protection contract with Gaines on Aug. 31, at 11:59 p.m.

The contract between the town and village expired on Dec. 31, 2015. Village officials have pushed for Gaines to pay $1 per $1,000 of assessed property for fire protection. That is what the Town of Albion pays the village.

Gaines pays only 32 cents per $1,000, by far the lowest rate in Orleans County. Village officials said Wednesday that Gaines officials have resisted paying more and haven’t responded to village requests for the two municipal boards to meet and discuss the issue.

“The Village Board regrets having to terminate a longstanding association with the Town of Gaines regarding fire protection services,” according to an April 22 letter from village attorney John Gavenda to Culhane. “Since the Town of Gaines has rejected the proposal made by the Village of Albion for said services, it has no alternative but to sever the association.”

Gaines officials had suggested the town pay based on percentage of calls in Albion fire protection district, which includes the Town of Albion, village and Gaines. Village officials want it based on assessment with the two towns each paying $1 per $1,000 of assessed property.

Village officials are hopeful a deal can be reached with Gaines before the contract expires after Aug. 31. Albion wants to keep Gaines partly because 20 to 25 volunteer firefighters live in that town. If Gaines isn’t in Albion’s service area, those members should join whatever fire department serves the town. But that would leave the Albion Fire Department with fewer members.

Gavenda, in his letter to Gaines on April 22, urged the town to “take all necessary measures to secure fire protection from an alternative source to avoid any lapse of service.”

The village agreed in 1995 to a 20-year deeply discounted fire protection rate in exchange for Gaines making the sewer plant on Densmore Street tax exempt.

Here are the fire protection rates for towns for 2016:

Albion, $1.00; Barre, $1.45; Carlton, 75 cents; Clarendon, $1.02; Gaines, 32 cents; Kendall – $1.40 to Kendall and $1.61 to Morton; Murray – $1.58 to Holley and $1.59 to Fancher-Hulberton-Murray; Ridgeway, $1.29; Shelby, $1.74; and Yates, 49 cents to Lyndonville.