Citizens group seeks to save joint Fire Dept.

Posted: March 9, 2010

About 65 Town of Vernon residents showed up to a meeting led by the Vernon Residents for Sensible Government last Wednesday to garner support against the upcoming split of the Big Bend-Vernon Fire Department.

The group's goal is to rally Vernon citizens to save the Fire Department and "stop the complete control of the Town of Vernon by a few elected officials" by providing information to the public, renegotiating a joint fire department ordinance with Big Bend and electing new Town Board members.

Led by Dennis Stienstra, Carol Shea, Diane Herried, Cathy Bronk, Marilyn Gauger and Mike Doble, the Vernon Residents for Sensible Government led the discussion with a presentation that outlined the Fire Department's history, its past budgets and income and projected consequences should a spit come to fruition.

According to the group, the Fire Department has never come in over budget, and approximately $50,000 will be returned to the town and the village from 2009.

"This is not a department fiscally out of control, as has been implied by the Vernon Town Board," reads the group's presentation notes.

Doble said he intends to make two motions at the town's annual meeting April 13. First, he will make a motion that the issue of withdrawing from the intermunicipal agreement be put to a referendum.

Doble said that although it may be too late for a referendum, he asked Town Chairman Fred Michalek to put the question to referendum immediately after the board made the decision to split the department late last year, but Michalek refused.

At Thursday's Town Board meeting, Supervisor Joe Reilly said he was against a referendum on the issue, citing the April 1997 annual meeting in which residents voted 44 to 14 to direct the board to "review all joint departments, joint projects, cost sharing arrangements, service contracts and other agreements between the town and village or city so annexing such territory is hereby authorized to modify, suspend or terminate the same."

Doble's second motion will be to renegotiate the intermunicipal agreement with Big Bend in an effort to continue the Fire Department as it exists today.

"I fully believe that in the short term and in the long term, this is our least-expensive option," he said. "It's not that I support everything Big Bend has done - they have caused some problems themselves - but focusing on the town, the board has made their point. Now we need to focus on cost savings."

Supervisor Bill Craig said that it will actually cost the town more if it does nothing and cited the village's intent to put in sewer, which he said will lead to big-box stores which will force a joint department to purchase costly equipment such as ladder trucks. The town would be paying for the village's growth, he explained.

"Why should Vernon be responsible for any additional costs due to Big Bend's growth?" he asked.

Instead of keeping the Fire Department as is, Reilly suggested the village could contract with the town.

That would cost the village less money, restore the feeling of trust and respect between the town and the village, allow for better oversight of the department, keep politics out of the department, allow the town and the village both to pay their fair share and provide better fire protection and paramedic service, he said.

Reilly told residents Thursday night that the Town Board doesn't give false information, adding that much of what was presented to residents at Wednesday's meeting was misrepresented.

"We're trying to do what's in the best interest of the town - the town - not the village," said Reilly. "Last night we heard a lot of misstatements. We are not (being) deceiving … we wouldn't do anything to hurt this town."

Craig stated that although the citizens committee insinuated that it is the Town Board who voted to split the department, it is not the town that dissolved the agreement.

"In the intermunicipal agreement, it says that if the town and village do not agree on identical budgets, the department will dissolve," he said. "We followed the intermunicipal agreement, which is a mandate."

The town has already voted to spend $25,535 to hire a consultant to evaluate the department. The joint department, which was established more than 40 years ago, is set to dissolve Dec. 31.

Town logo

Another dispute between the Town Board and the Vernon Residents for Sensible Government ensued over the use of the town and Fire Department logos.

According to Doble, in order to advertise for the group to assemble, he created a flier using the town logo and the Fire Department logo. He copied and pasted the logos from the Internet, he said.

"Lo and behold, not three days later, an item appears on the Town Board's agenda that reads: 'Town of Vernon and Fire Department logos by unauthorized parties.' Come on, we're a group of citizens. We can't use our own town and fire department logo? Maybe Big Bend will give us 17 percent of the permission we need to use this logo?" he said in his post on afterthewakeup.blogspot.com/.

At Thursday's meeting, Craig asked what guidelines were out there to ensure that the logos could not be used without permission.

Michalek responded there were none that he knew of.

"It lends credence to something that has no credence," said Craig.

The board voted to send the issue to the ordinance committee.

Once an ordinance is drafted, it can be reviewed by Town Attorney John Macy, Michalek said.