Henry Raymond
Fairfax News => Current News & Events => Topic started by: PotterFXFD on March 01, 2008, 04:26:43 PM
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It was great today to see how much the residents of Faifax support the fire department. Article #4 was passed by a large margin with very little discussion. Thank you.
The fire officers have come up with a replacement schedule and the selectboard is working on making it happen with out effecting taxes to severe. This was the first step. I will start doing my homework and sharpening many pencils with hopes we can get a new tanker in 2009.
As always we meet at the station every Tuesday night from 7-9pm everyone is invited to come down look around and ask questions about what we do and what we have.
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Of course the Town of Fairfax support the volunteer fire department as we do all volunteers.
I believe the fire department has demonstrated their creative ability to save money with using an old farm truck for H20!
What a fabulous idea and a great way to recycle!
Just a thought and perhaps it has already been reviewed. Would it be reasonable for the Town of Fletcher to begin setting aside a reasonable contributions toward the purchase of future fire department big ticket items? It might help the fire department get caught-up faster with both Towns contributing.
I just don't want the fire department to end up like the $3,000/year side walk fund.
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Fletcher currently pays Fairfax a $5000.00 retainer and are billed for calls that go over that. We change them a hourly rate for equipment and Firefighters when we are on calls in Fletcher. In 2007 Fletcher was billed and payed Fairfax $6348.50. I don't remember the exact numbers for calls in Fletcher but know it is a very small percentage of our total calls.
But yes we will be increasing Fletchers hourly rate's in coming years to better reflect a true cost and to help spread out the costs of operating the department.
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I agree with that for years Fairfax Fire was excellent at "recycling trucks" if you will to fit our needs. Unfortunately due to new governing laws set forth by OSHA and NFPA we can no longer use apparatus "not designed for fire fighting". The days of creating a "homemade" tanker out of a steel tank and old town truck chassis are behind us. This forces us to ask for higher budget numbers to purchase compliant equipment which is designed for fire fighting and overall provides a much safer and more effective piece of equipment. For anyone interested there are numerous studies conducted by NIOSH that focus on "homemade" tanker accidents and fatalities due to improper weight balances, non-baffled tanks, etc...
Again thank you to all the taxpayer support on Saturday and we look forward to progressing the fire department and keeping current with mandated requirements to suit the needs of our taxpayers.
Justin Hayes
Deputy Chief Fairfax Fire
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Congrats FVFD! Good to see the towns people gave you the support! In my travels all over the state to teach for the Vermont Fire Academy, I see many fire departments. Fairfax is up there near the top in dedication and training by their members. Fairfax is lucky to have them.