By Meghan Foley
The Keene Sentinel
FITZWILLIAM, H.H. — A nonprofit fire department established more than 60 years ago to provide specialty equipment and training to other area fire departments could soon cease to exist.
A special meeting of Meadowood County Area Fire Department Inc. members has been scheduled for later this month to vote on dissolving the organization and distributing its assets, according to a legal notice published Sunday in The Sentinel.
The meeting is also being held to appoint members to the organization’s board of directors to handle the outcome of the vote, the notice said.
Messages left for Rickard Donovan, president of the Meadowood board and Rindge fire chief, weren’t returned by press time this morning.
Other members of the organization, which includes firefighters from across the Monadnock Region, have declined comment, referring any questions to Donovan.
Meadowood ceased fire operations in 2011 because of financial difficulties. Since then, its members have focused on making it a premier training facility for firefighters in the Monadnock Region and elsewhere.
Despite those efforts, the organization’s financial struggles continued at least through 2013, which is the last year federal tax forms are available online for Meadowood.
The organization did file federal tax forms for 2014 and 2015, according to the Internal Revenue Service website.
During each of those years from 2011 to 2013, Meadowood took in less money than it spent, according to the IRS 990 tax forms.
In 2013, the organization took in $44,441 in revenue and recorded $49,680 in expenses for a deficit of $5,239, the tax forms showed. It also finished the year with $232,498 in net assets.
In 2012, the organization took in $40,667 and spent $52,784 for a deficit of $12,117, according to the tax forms. It finished the year with $237,737 in net assets.
In 2011, the organization took in $51,779 of revenue and recorded $62,313 in expenses for a deficit of $10,534, the tax forms said. It finished the year with $249,854 in net assets.
Meadowood was founded in 1953 by Donald Holbrook. It had two objectives.
The first was to give small towns in the area access to specialty fire equipment, such a tower truck, tankers and vehicles where firefighters could refill breathing apparatus with room air during a fire.
The second was to provide area firefighters with a training facility. The organization also had a dive team to respond to water rescues.
In 2013, Meadowood transferred its property on Upper Troy Road to the town of Fitzwilliam, so the organization could focus on its training center on Bowkerville Road. The Upper Troy Road site included Meadowood’s fire station and two other buildings.
No money was exchanged as part of the deal with Fitzwilliam, but a warrant article approved by Fitzwilliam voters at town meeting in March 2013 stated that if the town didn’t want the property in the future, it had to give it back to Meadowood.
However, if Meadowood didn’t exist, the town would be able to sell it, the warrant article said.
The special meeting of Meadowood members will be held Monday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. in the Meadowood Assembly Hall.
Copyright 2016 The Keene Sentinel