Lower Milford Not Paying For Fire Company Sewage

Lower Milford Township supervisors will not pay separately for the township fire company to connect to the Limeport sewage system because township taxpayers already subsidize the fire company.

 The Board of Supervisors at their meeting Thursday also said it was illegal for the township to pay the fire company’s sewage costs, which will be about $10,500 to connect to the system and $2250 in annual user fees.

The supervisors told officials from the Lower Milford Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 that the fees should instead be paid from the $203,000 currently in the fire company’s fund, which comes from a special one-mill “fire tax” that all property owners pay .

 “I would say the funds are there for you to utilize for the sewerage,” said supervisors chairperson Donna Wright. Supervisors Michael Snovitch and William Roy agreed. “I think we should use the fire fund,” Snovitch said.

 Solicitor Mark Cappuccio said the loan documents for the sewerage system prohibit using the township’s general fund to pay sewage fees for any individual users.

 Fire company vice president Ed Bendekovitz and fire company member Lloyd Ohl said the fire tax was meant to pay for fire fighting equipment and training, not for sewage fees. They said paying the sewage costs could lower the fund’s ability to pay for a future fire truck or new truck building.  Wright replied that if the fire fund doesn’t have enough money when a new fire truck or building is needed, the fire tax may have to be raised above the current one mill.

 Bendekovitz also complained that the one-mill fire tax is making it more difficult for the volunteer fire company to get public donations, citing “nasty letters” from people and groups they solicit. “We really don’t appreciate the negative comments we get back from residents,” he told the supervisors.

 Wright said the public has complained to township officials about the fire tax. “We are both getting beat up by residents,” she said.

 Ohl also complained that his two one-bedroom apartments are each paying the full equivalent dwelling unit (EDU) cost of $3500 for a sewage connection and $750 in yearly user fees, even though they produce much less sewage than a typical home in the village of Limeport that also pays for one EDU. Supervisors agreed it did not seem fair but that’s how EDU’s are typically defined and billed in public sewer systems.

 Ohl is not happy with the township. The township condemned Ohl’s land to build the new sewage treatment plant, and Ohl said after the meeting that he has appealed the $79,000 appraisal that the township paid him for the land, which he thinks is worth more.

 The supervisors also authorized bill payments of about $168,000 for construction of the new sewage system and payment for three years of  environmental liability insurance for the sewage system.