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This story reminds me of something that I think was discussed a little while ago in another thread (maybe related to proposed consolidation of the Coventry fire districts?)
Why in the heck does a town with under 30,000 people need 4 separate fire departments? Not too long ago they had 5! Not only do they have to hire their own staff and individually maintain their stations and equipment, but also need their own chief and tax collector (shockingly filled by a hack like this)! I wonder how many hours a week they typically are on the clock? There are many towns with a similar set up as Cumberland. Gloucester comes to mind (has an even smaller population). RI can no longer afford this kind of waste. Ya wonder why the property taxes are so high...
I would think it would have more to do with area than number of residents.
Central Falls only needs one because they're so small. Coventry is very large, physically. If you were near the Ct border and waiting on an Anthony FD truck, it would not be good. Also, most of these started as volunteer units.
Do they only have one fire district per town in MA?
*Edited to strike that question. I remember in Medway we had at least two.
Last edited by sandsonik; 03-28-2014 at 02:38 PM..
The Cumberland Fire District is made up mainly of volunteer fire departments. Residents pay a separate Fire District Tax for both real estate and automobiles, in addition to property tax on real estate.
It may be the same in Lincoln and North Smithfield, and other small towns. I'm not sure about those.
Nevertheless, that is an embarrassment for the Lambert family.
I would think it would have more to do with area than number of residents.
Central Falls only needs one because they're so small. Coventry is very large, physically. If you were near the Ct border and waiting on an Anthony FD truck, it would not be good. Also, most of these started as volunteer units.
Do they only have one fire district per town in MA?
*Edited to strike that question. I remember in Medway we had at least two.
I'm not talking about "fire stations", I am talking about "fire districts" or "fire departments". There is no reason for every individual station to be it's own separate department with it's own chief and tax collector and everything else. I spent a year down in TN. There was one fire department for the whole county covering 500 square miles! There is no reason for all this redundancy up here, we must do better.
No Medway has the Medway Fire Department. Town of Medway, MA - Fire Department Whether it has one or two stations (I only know of the one by 109/126), it is one department. You pay tax to the town, nothing separate for the fire department. Most of MA is the same, the Cape being an exception.
The Cumberland Fire District is made up mainly of volunteer fire departments. Residents pay a separate Fire District Tax for both real estate and automobiles, in addition to property tax on real estate.
It may be the same in Lincoln and North Smithfield, and other small towns. I'm not sure about those.
Nevertheless, that is an embarrassment for the Lambert family.
I'm pretty sure Valley Falls is FT and Cumberland Hill as well. Cumberland and N Cumberland I know are mostly on-call (my friend was a FF out of the Berkeley station for years). Either way, the town's taxpayers are getting ripped off by paying for 4 fire chiefs and 5 tax collectors when all that's needed is one of each. Actually that's all the whole state really needs (Miami-Dade, FL has one dept. covering a larger area and population than the state of RI).
This story reminds me of something that I think was discussed a little while ago in another thread (maybe related to proposed consolidation of the Coventry fire districts?)
Why in the heck does a town with under 30,000 people need 4 separate fire departments? Not too long ago they had 5! Not only do they have to hire their own staff and individually maintain their stations and equipment, but also need their own chief and tax collector (shockingly filled by a hack like this)! I wonder how many hours a week they typically are on the clock? There are many towns with a similar set up as Cumberland. Gloucester comes to mind (has an even smaller population). RI can no longer afford this kind of waste. Ya wonder why the property taxes are so high...
Why would you put "only in Rhode Island " in your title when you the one, if I recall correctly, who pointed previously that all of New England operates on a town basis? Surely you don't mean that RI is the only state that has embezzlers? That would be ridiculous.
We have had threads before about organizing on a county level and most people can see the economy in it. I believe this also goes along with requesting a state constitutional convention.
Why would you put "only in Rhode Island " in your title when you the one, if I recall correctly, who pointed previously that all of New England operates on a town basis? Surely you don't mean that RI is the only state that has embezzlers? That would be ridiculous.
We have had threads before about organizing on a county level and most people can see the economy in it. I believe this also goes along with requesting a state constitutional convention.
I do not know of anywhere else in NE where each fire district has its own tax collector (on top of the town itself), except for maybe a few towns on Cape Cod that still have independent fire districts.
In the future, please read the title and entire thread before you waste the OP's time on this type of silliness.
I'm not talking about "fire stations", I am talking about "fire districts" or "fire departments". There is no reason for every individual station to be it's own separate department with it's own chief and tax collector and everything else. I spent a year down in TN. There was one fire department for the whole county covering 500 square miles! There is no reason for all this redundancy up here, we must do better.
No Medway has the Medway Fire Department. Town of Medway, MA - Fire Department Whether it has one or two stations (I only know of the one by 109/126), it is one department. You pay tax to the town, nothing separate for the fire department. Most of MA is the same, the Cape being an exception.
The other fire station in Medway is behind the town hall. The only reason I brought it up is that you said "Not only do they have to hire their own staff and individually maintain their stations and equipment...", and you would still have to maintain separate stations and equipment even if they combined districts. You'd save on a fire chief, or on a tax collector if you employ one - you're right on that one.
The separate hierarchies in RI are part of the legacy of volunteer fire districts in small towns. There are actually some really good things about having separate fire districts. You pay your fire taxes directly to your district, and the residents have much more oversight over their local station. The districts are run by a committee of residents who serve one year terms. There's more accountability and more service.
Even though the fire districts have more full time professionals than they used to, most of the firemen are still volunteer. If you centralized operations, I think you'd lose the participation of local residents at the administrative level and at the fire fighting volunteer level, and have to pay much more in salaries. it's definitely possible you could still save more through centralization but I'd like to see it studied before rushing into it.
Personally, I'd miss that direct democratic connection - not to mention the chowder and clamcake fundraisers, LOL! Or knowing there was a place I could go if I needed more chairs for the family reunion.... In general, just feeling like the FD was part of my neighborhood. PVD doesn't have separate FDs and I don't think Cranston does. I know I don't feel a connection to my local dept in PVD, and I've never hear residents of either city talk about how much money they save on their fire dept.
I think a lot of people would be loathe to cede that control to the town council.
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