Expenses in the proposed budget contributed to a $13 annual increase for the average homeowner.
Stephen Finn
The Sun
On Feb. 16, the residents of Cinnaminson had a chance to voice their approval or disapproval of the Cinnaminson Fire Department’s proposed 2019 budget. After the polls closed that night, the department announced the budget had passed with 243 votes for is and 148 against.
In the weeks leading up to the vote, the fire department’s Facebook page was flooded with reminders to the public to come out and participate. They also posted a short video of Fire Chief William Kramer giving an overview of what his department would be asking for in the new budget and posted the proposal, in its entirety, on the department website.
For Kramer, transparency and community engagement are top priorities for his department, which maintains a very active online presence.
“That’s the way that you have to communicate with today’s public. If you’re not communicating with them that way you’re not only going to suffer with defeated budgets, you’re not going to be able to attract people to your organization,” said Kramer.
His hope is to get as much information to the public as possible so they can make educated decisions when it comes to their municipal services.
According to Kramer, there are facets involved in the regular budget the general public is unaware of if they don’t take the time to look into them. He uses water access as a prime example.
“Most people don’t realize in Cinnaminson our water is provided by New Jersey American Water. Ten percent of our budget goes to renting fire hydrants. It’s almost $300,000 a year to rent fire hydrants,” said Kramer. “We don’t own them and we don’t own the water in them either.”
Expenses in the new budget, including a new pumper truck, raised overall costs by 3.2 percent compared to the previous year’s budget.
Total appropriations in this year’s budget increased by $118,000, bringing the new total to $3.8 million compared with last year’s $3.7 million.
Costs for the average homeowner will increase $13 annually, or $1.16 a month with the new budget bringing the overall fire district tax to 20 cents per $100 assessed property value, an increase of .6 cents over last year.
The budget includes a down payment on new pumper truck, approved by voter referendum in December, that will be replacing two other vehicles in the department’s fleet that will be aging out of service soon.
“Typically an engine that gets the kind of use we see here will last us between 15 and 20 years,” said Kramer. “We’re going to go down to four pieces of apparatus, which is about the lowest we can go. It saves not only the maintenance, insurance and fuel by reducing your fleet by one, it also reduces replacement costs going forward,” said Kramer.
According to Kramer, the new pumper will be able to perform the functions of both of the older vehicles that it will be replacing and is coming at a cost of a little more than $600,000.
The budget also includes the salaries of three full-time firefighter EMTs. This cost had been covered for the past two years by the SAFER (federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) Grant. The expiration of this grant contributed to a slight increase in this year’s budget.
The Cinnaminson Fire Department’s 2019 budget is available for review on its website, cinnafire.org.
