By Denise Richardson
The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y.
ONEONTA — The future of fire protection services in the Town of Oneonta Fire District will be the topic of a public hearing Tuesday night.
The district’s board of commissioners will have a hearing at Elm Park Methodist Church at 401 Chestnut St. at 6 p.m.about whether a volunteer fire department should be formed.
Winter Storm Stella caused the cancellation of a previously scheduled hearing March 14.
Fire commissioners haven’t made a decision on forming a volunteer department, according to board Chairman Mike Butler who said the hearing is to gather residents’ views on the future of fire protection services in the district.
“We’re doing investigative work,” Butler said Sunday night. Butler said the main question is if fire district taxpayers want to pay the cost of a contract with the city or move toward a volunteer department, which he said can have options that include some paid staff.
Under the contract with the city, the fire district is paying $1.05 million this year, the second year of a three-year agreement reached a year ago.
For decades, the district has been protected by the paid Oneonta Fire Department under a contract with the city. The town of Oneonta surrounds the city, and the fire district includes most of the town, including the commercial Southside area, with the volunteer West Oneonta Fire District covering the remainder.
On Tuesday night at the hearing, Butler said, speakers living in the town or city of Oneonta will be allowed to speak for up to 3 minutes after registering on a sign-up sheet. Residents also may submit written comments through his email account at mdb1007@yahoo.com.
Butler said commissioners have done some research that indicates starting a volunteer fire department would have high start up costs but would cost less later on. Starting a volunteer department isn’t unrealistic, he said, and the amount of the contract with the city would be “a darn good start” for financing a volunteer department, he said.
Volunteer fire crews would have the same basic training as Oneonta’s professional, paid crews but wouldn’t have specialized training, such as rescues from confined spaces and hazardous materials handling, which could be provided through mutual aid, Butler said.
Butler said the board has information and some bids pertaining to establishing a volunteer department and some residents have indicated interest in serving.
Butler said the cost of the city contract and the resulting taxation are too high and unfair. Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig continues a position of unwillingness to negotiate, according to Butler, who said talks of a contract should start at $500,000.
Butler said if Meg Hungerford, city finance director, and Russ Southard, Sixth Ward Common Council member, were still involved in negotiations, a contract would have been reached.
“I don’t understand that statement at all,” Herzig said Sunday night. Herzig said that he, Hungerford and Southard are “on 100 percent the same page” about the fire contract. The proposal to negotiate starting at $500,000 is “absurd,” Herzig said.
“That is why we’re having so much trouble with the negotiations,” Herzig said. The cost the fire district is proposing is less than half of the current contract, he said, and the current price is consistent with two formulas discussed related to establishing costs.
The Oneonta Fire Department budget is a little more than $3 million, said Herzig, who recently was authorized by the Common Council to negotiate with commissioners. Herzig said, ultimately, it is the Common Council’s decision on approving a contract with the fire district.
An agreement with the fire district and the city on shared fire protection services is the best outcome for residents, economic development, efficiency and fire protection services, according to Herzig, who said he is willing to talk with commissioners.
“I look forward to being able to sit down and talk to them,” he said.
___
(c)2017 The Daily Star (Oneonta, N.Y.)