EAST CLINTON FIRE DISTRICT NEEDS YOUR VOTE

EAST CLINTON FIRE DISTRICT NEEDS YOUR VOTE

Clinton Corners, NY, November 25, 2019 – The East Clinton Fire District (ECFD) needs your vote on Tuesday, December 10, 2019, between 4 pm and 9 pm at the firehouse in Clinton Corners on Firehouse Lane, behind Jeanie Bean’s store.

The fire district Board of Commissioners has worked to develop and pass four important resolutions that will rein in the cost of the district’s pension-like service awards programs and establish reserve funds that will give taxpayers more say on major expenditures.

The four referenda include:

1. Create a Defined Contribution Service Awards Program for new members, starting Jan.1, 2020.  Each year a volunteer earns a service credit, the program will put $700 in a state-administered account in their name.  The new program will spend 75% less than the existing Defined Benefit Service Awards Program to finance a year of service credit earned by a volunteer.  The new program involves no investments and is not subject to market fluctuations as the Defined Benefit Program.  This referendum closes the existing program to new members.

2. Amend the Defined Benefit Service Awards Programto affirm its current monthly benefit level of $20 for each year of service credit a participant has earned and bar a once-contemplated 50% increase.

3. Establish an Equipment Reserve Fundto accumulate money for future capital purchases of equipment, apparatus, and machinery needed to fulfill the ECFD’s mission.

4. Establish a Capital Improvements Reserve Fundto accumulate money for future capital expenditures in connection with the buildings and real property needed to fulfill the ECFD’s mission.

Both these reserve funds will safeguard public funds for their dedicated purpose and assure taxpayers more say on major expenditures.  They avoid sudden surges in taxes by fostering regular savings to be prepared for future big-ticket equipment and facility needs.  The ECFD has long had accounts dubbed reserve funds for both equipment and capital improvements.  But the current Board of Commissioners has been un unable to document their approval in a public referendum as required by state law.  These two referenda correct that shortcoming and assure residents of the safeguards provided by legitimate reserve funds.

For more information, please join the Commissioners at an Open House from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 7, at the Clinton Town Hall. The ECFD commissioners Stephen N. Forschler, Chairman, Arthur Weiland, Michael DiGiacomio, Robert Trzcinski, and Byron Calame look forward to answering your questions. If you cannot make the Open House and have questions please contact Stephen Forschler at 845-266-4377 or forschler@optonline.net. You can also visit the ECFD website at www.eastclintonfd.com. Copies of all four referenda are displayed under “Election Information.”