Officials to review town fire coverage

Town Board members are seeking to have fire departments charge the same rate for service whether a property is inside of the immediate district or part of a contract coverage area called a fire protection district.

The proposal was discussed during a meeting on Monday, with Councilman Alan Scherr saying the difference between a core fire department district and a protection district needs to be balanced.

“What we ought to ask for is that we get equality,” he said. “Each fire department should charge the town at the same rate they’re charging their residents.”

There are three departments covering fire protection districts in the town. Included are: • Rhinebeck Fire Department, which is paid $190,000 to cover 1,276 properties in the town while having 1,245 properties in its own district. The tax rate per $1,000 assessed value was 33 cents for district residents and 37 cents for contract coverage.

• Rhinecliff Fire Department, which is paid $62,000 to cover 75 properties outside its district while having 599 properties in its district. The rate per $1,000 assessed value was 36 cents for district properties and $1.07 for contract coverage.

• Hillside Fire Department, which is paid $32,000 to cover 172 properties outside its district while having 448 properties in its district. The rate per $1,000 assessed value was 46 cents for district properties and 62 cents for contract coverage.

Officials said they would like tax calculations to be determined as if the contract coverage and district were in a single coverage area.

“Basically what they would do is set their budget, divide their budget up in proportion to the assessed value ... and we’d pay our share at whatever tax rate it works out to be,” Scherr said.

Officials for the fire departments were not immediately available for comment. However, Scherr said they have been told of the proposal.

“This was like a shock to their system because they didn’t expect this,” he said.