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Home My WebLink Aboutcontract enfield residents simmer over fire, dustup ij_0003Thursday, June 28,2007 1 THE ITHACA JOURNAL of switching to fire district ment accountable with their vote. Accountability was a ma- jor issue during the six month negotiation between the town board and the EVFC. In Tompkins County fire dis- tricts are located in Lansing, Danby, Slaterville, McLean and Brooktondale. BrianTurk a fire commission- er for the Brooktondale Fire Department, said it's his job to keep the public informed on the budget process. "The law is set up that when wedoourbudgetprocess,wehave togotothepubficandinformthem as to what we're going to do and how muchwe'regoingto raisethe taxes," Turk said. The suggested committee was also scheduled to meet Thursday nights — at the same time the fire company has held training sessions for more than 50 years, Denny said. Peggy Hubbell said the town board offered to change the meeting night, but when the fire company never responded, they went ahead with the Thursday night meetings. Dimmick said he didn't think the fire company ever came to the table to negotiate, and throughout negotiations, Dimmick was a strong voice in demanding accountability. "The issue was about account- ability; "Dimmick said. "Tbe con- tract that was proposed to them had a lot of accountability built into it from my perspective. Where were my tax dollars be- ing spent, in specifics? I felt as a taxpayer that I was entitled to M accounting." Denny Hubbellsaid in the past, the town board never mentioned that the fire company's financial reports were insufficient. The result of inadequate fi- nancial reports was an audit that cost the town $4,000 in taxpay- er money. The auditor made three trips to the fire company without uncovering any mishan- dling of taxpayer funds. I was quite reassured (that there was no misuse);' supervi- sor Owens said. "I would think that, at least, it would put any rumors to rest. There was aboard ember that said they were robably using (town money) o build their garages at home. Shurtleff said that one aspect of a board of fire commission- ers is their ability to dedicate themselves entirely to oversee- ing fire department operations, whereas town boards are bur- dened by multiple responsibil- ities to the town Scott Purcellthe Lansing Fire Chief, said working under a dis- trict is very similar to working under a town board because he still has to report to the board of commissioners, as they ap- prove major purchases for big- ticket items like trucks. He also said that it does help to have a board of commissioners com- pletely focus on the fire depart- ment. That squashed the idea" Minutes from the Dec 27, 2006 special town board meeting show that Small suggested the board keep the audit "to them- selves." "If the town's going to have an audit done, it should be open to the public good, bad or oth- erwise," Stevenson said. The contract that was signed Wednesday, April ll "absolute- ly shortchanged (the fire com- pany)," Denny Hubbell said. There was also an impact on the volunteermorale duringthe contract dispute. Switzer said TOBACCO ADDICT claims 25,500 lives e year in New York Sta Half a million more s with illness from sm( EVERYONE PAYS "We really want to see a fire district," Enfield Fire Chief Ron Switzer said. "We want the pow- er in the hands of the taxpay- ers, not in the few hands of the town board that (might) have a vendetta." Greg Stevenson, D -Newfield and Enfield, said he isn't sure how they would organize aboard of commissioners, but that he thought the town board could appoint one fire commissioner for a one year tens, another for a two year term and so on up to five. He said that doing this would allow the public to elect a com- missioner everyyear and would eventually make each position he thought the contract negoti- ations had a lot to do with why two of his officers resigned this year. "Why do I do this when peo- ple are accusing us of things?" Switzer said he asked himself during the negotiations. Stevensonsaidhe thought the negotiations took a serious toll on the fire company members and said it's not easy for volun- teers to lend so much of their time and money to a cause on- ly to be questioned. 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