TOWN OF HAMBURG
Oversight of Hamburg fire units questioned
Hamburg’s volunteer fire companies control budgets of hundreds of thousands of dollars, largely funded by taxpayers, with little oversight from the town government, an activist charged Monday during a contentious public hearing.
“Can you open their books?” Ford Beckwith asked the Town Board.
The town contracts with volunteer fire companies for fire and emergency services. Eight companies presented contract requests for next year at the hearing, seeking a total of $2.54 million, an increase of 3 percent from this year.
Beckwith took issue with a $350,000 land purchase by Big Tree Volunteer Fire Company. The company, he said, plans a costly new fire hall and is moving ahead without advice from the town.
Big Tree Chief Ronald Klimowicz said the fire company has bought land with hopes of consolidating its main fire hall on South Park Avenue near Milestrip Road and a substation on Big Tree Road near South Park Avenue.
But it has no firm plans at this point to build anything, he said. If plans are made, the Town Board will be informed, he said.
“If we were going to go ahead, we would need taxpayers behind it,” he said.
The fire company has about 25 active members, he said, and responds to about 1,300 fire and emergency calls a year in a 5.6- square-mile area.
In addition to the building consolidation, the company is looking to cut costs by joining with other fire companies to buy fuel and insurance, Klimowicz said.
Big Tree is seeking a town contract of $436,920 for next year, a 3.7 percent increase. The Town Board held off acting on the contract requests Monday.
While the fire company isn’t required to open its books to the town, it does keep an annual audit by an outside accountant that is available to state auditors, he said.
Beckwith, whose Web log has taken aim at Big Tree in recent weeks, said he is trying to find out how many actual fires the fire company responds to, but has had no response from the town. He also questioned what would happen to property if a fire company were dissolved.
Hamburg Supervisor Steven Walters said that fire company assets would revert to the town, through the fire district, if a company was shut down.
Big Tree’s ability to buy land without coming to town taxpayers could be a positive, he said, although the town does expect to be in close communication with fire companies about major expenses.
“We do put a lot of faith in our fire companies and count on them to do the right thing,” Walters said.
