South Connellsville fire department asks council for more money
SOUTH CONNELLSVILLE — Members of the borough volunteer fire department asked council on Monday to impose a $25 property tax to cover the department’s expenses.
Department officers said the $1,700 a year that council provides covers one of the $1,300 monthly insurance payments for its trucks and fundraisers are needed to cover the rest of the bills.
“I don’t think a $25 per capita tax would hurt anyone,” fire department President Dan Ringer said.
He said the department’s annual fund drive brings in an average of $4,000.
Council President Guy Napilillo said a municipal services tax has been discussed before, but it can be assessed only on people working in the borough and it wouldn’t generate much money.
Only people making more than $12,000 a year would be subject to a municipal services tax, Councilman Clyde Martz said.
Councilman Robert Ward said residents already pay a $10 per capita tax, which is split between the borough and Connellsville Area School District.
Ringer said a tax for the department could be assessed on each property, not each resident, in the borough and residents could vote on it in a referendum.
Napilillo said he has talked to Fayette County Election Bureau officials in the past about a referendum to making the police department full-time and was told that the use of referendums is limited to creating or closing departments, but he would investigate the matter further.
If a referendum could be used for a fire department tax, it is probably too late to put the question on the May primary election ballot and it would likely have to wait until the general election in November, Napilillo said.
Council members inquired about the South Connellsville Firemen’s Club.
Last year, the club gave the department $6,000, which got the department out of debt, Ringer said.
The club is a social club that supports the department as much as it can, but even though it charges only $1.50 for a beer it doesn’t do as much business as it did in the 1980s and has to pay employees and other bills, he said.
Another officer said the club was not set up to support the department.
Councilwoman Kim Laws asked the department to give council copies of its monthly bills.
One officer said the department’s gas bills is $749 a month in a budget payment plan and its insurance policy provides only $50,000 coverage on the fire station’s contents.
Laws said the department could bill homeowners’ insurance companies following fires, but Ringer said the companies aren’t required to pay those bills.
Other municipalities have tried allowing their fire departments to bill insurance companies for fire response, but it doesn’t seem to work, Napiillo said, adding that not all homeowners have insurance.
Another officer said the department recently received a grant of more than $11,000 for new firefighting tools that go on the fire truck.
Mayor Peter Casini did not attend the meeting. He is facing a theft charge for allegedly transferring ownership of a handgun from the police department to himself.
In other business, council:
n Voted 6-1 to apply for a credit card with Councilman Neil Armstrong voting against the motion.
n Agreed to purchase miscellaneous police equipment for up to $500.
n Asked residents not to drop off garbage and sewage bill payments in cash.