An almost-secret election will be held on Saturday, February 17th, from 2 to 9 PM at your local firehouse. It's the annual referendum on spending a million dollars or more that has an impact on your property taxes. There are also candidates on the ballot for paid fire commissioner jobs (more money).
The cost of holding the election itself could be saved if the town changed the odd third-Saturday-in-February date to the date of the general election in November. Then more people would vote, instead of mostly just members of the fire departments.
Furthermore, Hamilton Township has a good idea that would free up money that could be better spent on actually fighting fires:
Find out what's happening in Toms Riverfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"a unified fire service... a fire department under the control of the municipality rather than consolidating all the fire districts into one district run by an independent commission with no oversight from town hall.
"This is noteworthy because it shows the new council, which swung from Republican to Democratic control, is willing to work across party lines to ensure the township sets up the most efficient and economical fire service possible." - NJ.com (Trenton Times & Star-Ledger)
