Pelham struggles to find budget $ for the FD

[firebuff08 29]

At 2.2 square miles, the entire town of Pelham (the two villages combined) would not even qualify to have an engine company if it were part of any large City in the United States. Why in the name of god are there two fire departments covering this tiny spot on the map with a population of just over 12,000? My daughter lives in Glen Ridge, NJ, a wealthy Borough of 7,500 covering 1.3 square miles. It has NO fire department. The Borough contracts with neighboring Montclair, NJ for fire protection. Montclair has a fulltime paid department operating out of 3 stations. Response times to alarms in Glen Ridge are 3 minutes or less. There is absolutely no reason other than turf protection why Pelham and Pelham Manor can not contract with a neighboring department for protection. At the very least, they should combine the two fire departments into one. Operate out of a single station. Get rid of excess equipment and administration. Even combined they wouldn't do enough call volume to be considered a half busy department.

Having lived in Westchester for 20 years, though, it wouldn't surprise me if they went the other way... creating a third fire department in that tiny spot on the map!!

[norestriction 10]

At $2.2m there is not a lot to cut.

Which areas should be cut: Street maintenance, snow removal, street lighting, traffic lighting, sanitary and storm water system maintenance, Fleet maintenance for all village vehicles, mintain parks, maintain 1/2 of water system (other 1/2 is united water) plus meter reading. The have 9 employee's

Fire dept budget is bigger than the dpw? I am not here to knock Pelham but when you compare the size of the villages to others without pulling out the calculator there has to be an answer ( maybe consolidation)

[helicopper 1,050]

I don't think it matters who's budget is bigger (FD, DPW or PD). The issue is that municipalities are not seeing the revenue to meet the costs without sizable tax increases. With people already paying 40K in property taxes, how much more can you tax them?

The bottom line, and Pelham is just the first to be in the news, is that most jurisdictions are going to be singing this song come budget time.

[Guest RADDOG7190]

Damn, i had no idea they had this kind of issue down there.Shame on the village. I wish i had the answers. Id love to see a copy of the budget to see where all those tax dollars go... Anyone know where one could find that info?

Go to pelhamgov.net to view their budget

[Guest RADDOG7190]

what are the run totals for a Village of 6500 as of 2000 ? Isnt there a possibility that the Village cant afford to maintain what is has. Was there a need for a career dept ( serious question) and if so does the career end need to man the firehouse 24 hours a day.

I live in a Village of 12,000 and we are strictly volunteers with 450 runs a year with a budget of $375,000 with $150,000 of that going to United Water , I would love some of Pelhams budget

I think your numbers are a little low on that budget, was it taken straight from the budget or a guess, it actually costs a lot more money to budget a volunteer Dept, then a paid dept depending on the size