The Budget Hinges On Attacking The MVFD

“WHY WE SHOULD VOTE "NO" to this budget

This budget can be easily cut. Specifically, remove the following from the 

budget: the extra unmonitored fuel tank and the duplicate 

communications services. Stop paying the insurance premiums for private 

companies that do business in town, stop putting away huge sums of 

money for the Fire Dept that has, according to its IRS filings over $ 

800,000.00 in its own assets.”

More inaccuracies from Mr. DeAngelis.

1) The present fuel tank at Fire HQ is locked as well as monitored.

2) It will not be an extra tank, but rather a new replacement tank that will pay for itself in less than 3 years.

3) Insurance premiums for the ambulance vehicles has never been established.  Not one person has given a real number how much adding two vehicles under the Town’s fleet insurance actually costs.  Not one person has been able to give an accurate figure as to how much it costs to insure 12 EMTs who are not cross-train firefighters.  The $40,000.00 that Mr. DeAngelis and Mr. McCormick like to circulate is not accurate.

4) Mr. DeAngelis does not believe the Town should save to replace fire apparatus. It was Mr. St. John who stonewalled replacing fire apparatus since 2003. The result, the Town has a rescue truck that is over 30 years old, and 3 pumpers that are over 20 years old.  The Fire Department tanker will be over 20 years old in 3 years. Mr. St. John put politics in front of public safety.

NFPA recommends that all front-line apparatus be replaced every 20 years. In an April 18th, 2005 survey from Firehouse Magazine in which there were 6827 respondents, only 6% of those fire departments who responded run a first-out engine over the age of 20 years old. 

Engine 3 and Engine 4 are Middlebury’s first-out engines.  They are both over 20 years old.  Engine 3 recently failed when responding to an accident on I-84. The price tag of the repair $8000.00. As the apparatus ages, the chance of failure increases. This could equate to loss of life and property. As the apparatus ages, the repair costs increase as well.

Saving for replacement apparatus is the prudent thing to do.  Cutting it from the budget will just delay the inevitable.

5) The $800,000.00 MVFD treasury figure is not accurate. Of course, Mr. DeAngelis does not care that the figure is not accurate.  Its the agenda that is more important than the truth.

6) Mr. DeAngelis wants to weaken the 911 system in Middlebury, by eliminating Northwest C-Med without bringing proper EMD services to Town. The present system allows for better patient care, and increases the rate that calls are dispatched. The cells of the brain of a patient who is not breathing will begin to die in 4 to 6 minutes. Quicker dispatch equates to more lives saved.  How much is that worth?

Having all communications at Middlebury HQ would be the ultimate solution, but in order to do it properly more taxpayer money will have to be sunk into the communications budget. How much would taxes increase by adding a second dispatcher to each shift?  We can safely say it would be a lot more expensive than using Northwest.