Petitions turned in seeking public vote for fire district in Albion, Gaines
Albion village sets June 10, June 17 informational meetings about fire district
Photo by Tom Rivers: The Albion Fire Department ladder truck is from 1997 and the fire department would like to replace it soon. A new truck could top $2 million.
ALBION – Petitions have been turned in to try to force a public vote on whether a new Albion Joint Fire District should be created serving the towns of Albion and Gaines.
On Thursday, petitions were turned in to the Gaines town clerk signed by 107 people, to the Albion town clerk signed by 95 people and to the Albion village clerk signed by 259 people. Thursday was the deadline to turn in the petitions.
The town boards for the two towns plus the Albion Village Board on April 30 voted to create a joint fire district. The new district would move the fire department out of the village budget and into its own taxing jurisdiction with elected commissioners.
The two towns currently pay a fire contract to the village for fire protection. With the current budget of about $350,000 the village pays $113,456 (32 percent), the Town of Gaines contributes $120,422 (35 percent) and the Town of Albion pays $116,122 (33 percent).
Some community members want more information about the fire district, including a budget breakdown. During a public hearing on April 24 at the Albion High School LGI, residents were told the fire district budget would likely be $750,000 to $850,000 a year, well above the current $350,000 for the fire department. That $350,000 has left the fire department without a reserve fund for a new ladder truck at an estimated $2.2 million and another fire engine at about $1.1 million. Those trucks will be needed in the near future to replace aging apparatus, deputy fire chief John Papponetti said.
Laura Bentley supports a referendum on the issue. Bentley, owner of Bentley Brothers, lives in Carlton but owns property in Albion and Gaines. She didn’t collect petitions but helped with the process.
“I support a fire district,” she said on Saturday. “It needs to happen. But they need to share more information. During the public hearing, they didn’t respond to questions.”
Bentley said a big jump in the fire department budget will be hard on local taxpayers who are seeing many cost increases in taxes and other expenses.
The two towns require signatures from at least 5 percent of the registered voters in the last gubernatorial election or about 100 people. But the village requires signatures from at least 20 percent of the registered voters or about 650 people.
Bentley said the group seeking a referendum believes it met the threshold to force a public vote in the two towns. It didn’t get enough at the village level. However it is a moot point because village residents are also in either one of the two towns and it doesn’t make sense to also have a referendum at the village level when they are voting at the towns.
Gaines and Albion town officials are expected to review the petitions and meet to set a date for the referendum, which is 60 to 90 days from when the petitions are turned in.
If a vote is set for Albion and Gaines, this would be the second referendum forced by the public on an issue in Orleans County this year. Yates is having a public vote on June 20 on whether the town can spend $700,000 in grant funds to acquire 153.3 acres from NYS Electric and Gas to expand the Yates Town Park on Lake Ontario.
Albion Village Board urges support for fire district
The Albion Village Board issued a press release announcing there will be informational meetings about the fire district at 6 p.m. on June 10 and June 17 at Hoag Library.
“The intent is not to point fingers, but to provide facts about what the next steps should be,” The Village Board states in the press release. “In an effort of continued transparency, our goal is to address any remaining questions.”
The Village Board states the fire department needs a bigger budget. The board stated the following problems with the current situation and the reasons for its support of the fire district:
• When most of us took office, there were no reserves to offset larger capital projects or equipment purchases. The Albion Fire Department was forced to operate “paycheck by paycheck” with no savings for future expenses, planned or unplanned.
• The current fire department budget was not funded at proper levels to meet operational needs, and the village was not able to increase funds without significantly increasing the village tax rate. This resulted in a situation where needed improvements to facilities and equipment had to be delayed, “the can was kicked down the road.”
• The fire contract money from the Town of Albion and Town of Gaines, along with supplemental funds from the village, is keeping the fire department afloat but is not meeting current or future needs.
• We are faced with having to replace two aging apparatus (vintage 1992 & 1997). While evaluating this situation, the chief officers of the fire department proposed to the village replacing three apparatus with only two to “right size the fleet.” The Board agreed because long term, this would be a cost-saving move for the taxpayers. NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) Standards recommend that apparatus that are more than 25 years old be retired from the vehicle fleet.
• The Village of Albion does not have the ability to take on the debt for the replacement of fire apparatus, or any other necessary improvements, without significant increases in the village tax rate.
• Providing fire protection is not an optional service. It must be provided by law. Providing inferior fire protection not only puts our volunteer firefighters at risk, but it is also a letdown to those that expect a high-quality life and property saving service.
• Providing inferior fire protection lowers the community’s Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating and would likely increase the insurance premium of every homeowner and may even cause an insurer to deny you coverage in some circumstances. ISO ratings reflect an area’s preparedness to prevent and extinguish fires, such as the number of firefighters, training, apparatus maintenance and reliability, water supply, emergency communication system, and fire safety education and prevention.
Benefits of forming a Joint Fire District for the Town Albion and Town of Gaines:
• The district offers a way to right the mismanagement of past fire protection service and spread the cost of this necessary service evenly across a larger tax base.
• Every registered voter in the Joint Fire District has a say and has the ability to run for commissioner.
• Every registered voter has the ability to vote for commissioners, bonding referendums, creation of reserve accounts, etc. that affect the operation of the fire district. You eliminate “taxation without representation.”
• Your tax bill will have a separate line item with the Fire District Tax. You will have peace of mind that your fire tax dollars are being spent on fire protection.
What happens if the Joint Fire District is not approved:
• If the Joint Fire District is not approved, the Village of Albion will be forced to raise village taxes about $5 per $1,000 of assessed value (a 25 percent increase in village taxes). In addition, once the fire protection contracts with the towns expire at the end of 2026, the village will be forced to negotiate higher-rate contracts with the towns to properly fund and operate the fire department. The towns will then need to increase taxes to pay the higher rates.
