Board OKs advertising fire tax
By Susan Bryant
The issue of a fire tax and funding the five fire companies serving Lowhill Township was the main topic of discussion at the Aug. 5 virtual and in-person board of supervisors’ meeting.
Chairman Rich Hughes said the township does not have its own fire company and cannot afford a fire company.
He said the original agreement the township made in 2007 was to pay each of the fire departments $500 per call plus $100 an hour after two hours and that is what the township has been doing over the years.
According to Administrator Brian Carl, the township this year paid $30,000 which was budgeted for the five fire companies.
“Our budgeted numbers were based historically on what we were paying, but not all departments were billing us,” he said. “We never knew what the numbers were until we put them together.”
Carl told supervisors the spreadsheet he gave them was based on previous conservations the board had when they were discussing doubling the rate from $500 to $1,000 per call for the fire companies.
“Obviously if we do that and, we had 66 calls in Lowhill Township last year, $1,000 a call with no hourly rate, is $66,000,” he stated.
He added if the fire companies do enough to cover the $500 per call, the township would need a .14-mil fire tax.
“Just looking toward call volume, Heidelberg has a .4 mil and Weisenberg has .44 mil,” Carl said. “A .44 mil fire tax would bring in roughly $115, 000 a year.
“Now that is based on the flat rate not percentage discounts assuming everyone would pay and there is no deduction for a tax collector or compensation.
“If the township has a goal of raising a $100,000 a year and they have 66 calls, that is $66,000. If the numbers move to 80, this would allow a couple bucks to be carried over each year into the account so it wouldn’t suddenly get to a year when we get 120 calls we can’t afford.”
Carl said each January he would contact Lehigh County 911 and get a breakdown report on calls for the five fire companies that serve the township.
Attorney Keith Strohl, who attended the meeting with the township Solicitor Charles Waters, said a fire tax can only be used for fire services, apparatus, training and paid employees.
He said the reason municipalities are going with a fire tax is it is easily identifiable, and it would be a separate line item on bills.
Strohl told the board if they decided to go with a fire tax, they would need to give authorization to advertise for a fire tax at the next meeting.
“If you give authorization to advertise, then we can move forward,” he said. “We would want to set the millage as part of the ordinance.
“The ordinance provides that it (fire tax millage) can be adjusted every year during reorganization. So, you can adjust it as you see necessary whether it is up or down.”
“It is our duty to protect the citizens of the township, and this is part of it,” Hughes said before the board approving a motion to advertise for a fire tax
Next on the agenda was approval of the George “Buddy” and Cheree Wessner’s, Stone Haven minor subdivision final plan.
After a brief discussion, supervisors approved the plan with Wessner abstaining.
Next was Engineer Ryan Christman’s report on the Bear Road Bridge Replacement project.
According to Christman, the old Bear Road Bridge has been removed.
“Right now, we are going into the first or second week of September for the (new) bridge to show up,” Christman said.
He added it will take a few weeks to finish everything once they install the new bridge and add the back fill.
Carl stated during his administrator report, they did have a violation for a home on Wyndemere Circle he could not get satisfied, so the township is going to place a lien on the property.
The next item was the old, low-band radio system they share with Weisenberg Township.
“The equipment is obsolete, and we can’t get new radios,” he said. “It is really old technology we are using.”
He said if the township goes with a similar system to what Heidelberg and, it looks like Lynn, are going with, it would end up costing the township $6,100 for five base radios and five base kits and a monthly fee of $28 per radio.
The board did not discuss the issue further after listening to Carl’s reporting on the radios.
The last item under Carl’s report was the pricing proposal to transfer all paper property files to electronic files.
He said Lowhill’s price came in at $8,300 plus a yearly fee.
Hughes said they would keep this matter on the agenda for now.
The next supervisors ‘meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Sept. 2.