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Originally Posted by BlackhawksFan
I am a retired deputy chief from a good size northeastern city I served nearly 25 years. In addition to that I also volunteered for the department in the town I grew up in and later raised my family in.
The volunteer department was one of several in town that were all separate fire districts. Each had its own board of fire commissioners, constitution and by laws. They bought their own apparatus, paid call firefighters and volunteer stipends, had their own fire chief, fire officers and firefighters totally independent of each other. It has been like this since the 1860s. Over those 160+ years the districts have learned to work together not only at emergency scenes but have meetings a few times a year to discuss mutually funded situations like our inter-department technical rescue team.
Each fire district was created by state law. It was done this way so they could effectively tax their district residents for fire services. For many years each district used to do their own tax collection but in the early 90s they turned that over to the town for a 1% administrative fee. These fire districts can not be disbanded without a vote of the district taxpayers and then a second vote of the state legislature. Each year there is a district meeting where the residents approve the tax rate and budget for the upcoming fiscal year. There may be special meetings through out the year for large non budget items such as major building repairs or to purchase new apparatus.
I found working under a municipality vs working under a fire district was definitely different but I preferred the fire district. We always had the best equipment, the firefighters that are paid make very good wages and benefits, their training both in house and from the outside is outstanding for bother care we and volunteer personnel. Over the years I found the district more willing to listen to the firefighters and citizens then any municipality because that was their lone responsibility. While both are held accountable for spending, their actions, etc the district commissioners seemed to take their responsibilities more seriously and always strived to provide the best services to their districts.
A tax district to me is the way to go. As someone who has used the EMS service here the Villages FD paramedics are outstanding. AMR's personnel are also very good it's the management of that entire company nationwide that is poor. Since the end of May we used EMS twice for my 80 yr old mother who had difficulty breathing/minor heart attack. Both times VFD was here quickly somewhere around 4 minutes. It was the county service that was the issue. Each time we waited, the first time was around 20-25 minutes as they came from somewhere further west of us, the second time was slightly longer. I couldn't imagine waiting that long for help w/o the VFD paramedics.
It's been my experience when firefighters want to do something and believe in something to let them do it. These VFD members will continue to provide top notch services if they do this. Yes there will be costs for manpower and equipment but that's the cost of doing business. If it helps provide better, quicker, more efficient medical care I'm all for it.
I know this is probably all over the place but I wanted to give people who have never dealt with an independent taxing district an idea of what it is like. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
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We also lived in a town with a volunteer fire dept. They would regularly, aggressively, shake us down to donate to them. Hum, after we paid off our mortgage and so were paying our tax bill direct. Our taxes paid for the fire equipment including the new truck, new fire house etc. Our donation and we gave quite a bit was to cover beer etc.
As far as government, I view it as a necessary EVIL. I do a lot of research before voting.
I do my best not to deal with any of them.