FUND

from Pine Barrens Tribune March 25, 2023 - March 31, 2023

by Pine Barrens Tribune

Easter Joy

aid responses, and that “60 percent of those calls came during day, during the week.”

By making the request of the Tabernacle committee, Gajderowicz, who pointed out that “staffing and having crews in-house matters” because it only “takes five minutes for a fire to start spreading,” maintained, the department is being “fiscally responsible” and “not trying to break the bank” as otherwise it would potentially have to transition to a career fire department to meet the ongoing demand, and in looking at surrounding communities, a lone career firefighter averages costing around $95,000 when including benefits are included with the compensation.

Gajderowicz contended that by the township committee continuing with the program, it will cost what it would for just one career firefighter, presenting an overall savings to the community.

He pointed out that “multiple towns” in Burlington County “use this program,” which he maintained “helps” participants by having personnel on duty during the daytime to “maintain the fire station, clean it up, make any small repairs, maintain the fire equipment and apparatus,” as well as “support public relations” with staffing able to visit the local schools while in session.

“The safety of our residents is absolutely paramount and a big concern,” responded Mayor Samuel “Sammy” Moore III, a former member of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service. “We have a big rural town and it takes a while to get from one end of town to the other at times. Time is of the essence during these situations.”

Moore added that he would like to have the township’s chief financial officer, Rodney Haines, “look into cost, overall” and declared of the township taking over the program, “I think this really needs to be looked at seriously.”

Haines, while noting that he was just learning of the request for the first time on March 13, said that he didn’t believe finding the funding in this year’s budget to support the program would present a major issue as the fire department’s request for 2023 is “for just December” and it would only be one-twelfth of the $104,000 annual figure. But in 2024, when possibly the full $104,000 will need to be funded by the township, it will be a different story, the chief financial officer suggested, recommending to “have a meeting with the administration.”

The chief financial officer added that one thing “we might want to do is explore shared services” for “daily duty crews” given that the department is already providing mutual aid during the daytime to surrounding towns.”

It is a prospect that Gajderowicz did not weigh in on, but such an arrangement was recently approved by the Tabernacle committee between Lumberton, Tabernacle and Shamong for EMS services, which is also suffering from a lack of volunteers, particularly in the daytime. But the Lumberton EMS chief, in detailing the discussions surrounding the shared service, noted that when a more encompassing shared service was pursued between a number of other towns, “big egos” came into play in which a smaller arrangement ended up being pursued, at least for now.

Haines envisioned the possibility that Tabernacle could get other towns to “kick money in” towards firefighting coverage during the daytime through a shared service agreement, and in response to Haines, Moore called it a “really good” idea and said that he would begin having discussions with other nearby towns and their mayors.

“It is an important program,” said Tabernacle Committeeman Noble McNaughton. “We need Rodney (Haines) to come up with the numbers and see what we can do. It is imperative to have these people during the week. With every organization that I talk to, volunteers are dropping off like crazy. People just don’t seem to want to get involved anymore.”

Committeewoman Kim Brown agreed it was “important,” but cautioned “we need to look into it and make sure it fits into the budget,” while Committeeman William Sprague asserted he is in “total agreement with it” and maintained he is “glad it is something that can be resolved.”