Submitted via comment. Thank you for your service.
As a frum firefighter let me address some of your concerns. Let me start by saying that many of us are at odds with the board members but that has nothing to do with or concerns.
1) Please look at how much you actually pay more in taxes for the fire tax. You pay a lot more for the town to waste. It went from 0.058 to 0.070. Now calculate that against what the value of your home is (this is your per year bill). Also the max 2% is a farce. The township (not related to the FD) has done a lot more than 2%, they use a loophole. Your anger should be facing them.
2) There are many times we need to be at the firehouse such as storm standbys. When it's freezing cold out side and there is 3 feet of snow on the ground we are called to the firehouse in case there is a fire. We wait there so if
there is a fire we should be able to respond faster. The last you can do is give them the ability to get work done. When I am at a storm standby I am working since I need to pay my bills. I use the Wifi to do that.
3) The commissioners MUST bid out the work. They aren't allowed to just call a friend to have do the work.
4) Look at the history of how much the fire taxes have gone up over the years. It's nothing compared to what the township is doing yet there nothing is said.
Over all go look at what the fire tax is in Brick, Toms River and Howell. It's a lot more there. Go look at what it would cost if we went from a partially paid dept. to a fully paid dept. Your fire taxes will from from .07 to some where around 0.15 to 0.20. But be smarter and annoy the volunteers to the point where they leave and you are left footing the bill.
Some of the more incompetent fire commissioners are volunteers in the FD. Being a good or great firefighter does not give one the skills to run the department. My guess is the volunteers are suffering the most from the bad management of the commissioners they worked so hard on electing. In the end everyone suffers
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