Sun to print next BTVFC Article on Oct 15th.

This will be printed in next weeks Hamburg Sun as a response to all the nay-sayers. The truth hurts and it’s getting out there. Let’s see if they can get mom and dad to cry a river over this one! LOL!!! Letter to the Editor

 

Dan,

 

After reading the responses to my letter about the financing oversight of Hamburg Fire Contracts, I was a bit dismayed at the comment that I am trying to “destroy some-ones heroes”. In fact I believe I started my letter with the paragraph “I for one applaud our fire volunteers and appreciate their efforts in the job they do. I don’t have a single beef with any of the young men and women that volunteer to fight fires in this town. What I do have a beef with is the administration within these departments on how they spend our tax dollars.”

 

To all the naysayers including Jack, Sue and Ruth Rocinowski, every comment I have made has been based on facts. You may not like the facts but they are facts just the same. Some of these facts include:

 

1.)    Big Tree Fire Companies 2006 tax return list the company as holding $1,254,602.00 in cash on hand in the bank.

2.)    They also report 1,360,071.00 plus in investments for a total of more than 2.7 million dollars.

3.)    The BTVFC town tax budget for that year was $421,997.00 and out of that budget they charged the town 197K in depreciation of equipment and 92K to occupy buildings they already own.

4.)    This means that more than half their tax money from us was more than likely put in a bank account somewhere that they are drawing interest on. Don’t you think that money should be in your bank account for you to draw interest on?

 

The bottom line is that the Town of Hamburg hands these fire companies millions of dollars every year but the town officials have no oversight of how it gets spent. If the fire company doesn’t use it all they can just put it in their own accounts and draw interest on it while reporting it to the IRS as depreciation or occupancy which isn’t a real yearly expense and is a speculative expense at best. They can even use your tax dollars to buy investment property such as the $350,000.00 purchase they made this year for 13 acres of land.

 

My efforts in this matter are to simply bring to light the abuses of certain fire companies finances that are highlighted by the out right disregard for our wallets by companies like the Big Tree Fire Company. Each year the Town of Hamburg signs contracts with all the fire companies but the contracts don’t include any oversight clauses or give the town the right to audit or look at the book keeping of any of these fire companies.

 

Another big problem is that even though many of us in this town have tax dollars given to certain fire companies for paramedic/ambulance service, these fire companies don’t respond to half the calls that go out for that service. Instead the calls get routed to Rural Metro Ambulance Service who in turn bills the residents or their private insurance for the call. In essence many in this town then are double billed for that call. The town actually contracted with Rural Metro Ambulance Service because the fire companies were being reported as “UNRELIABLE” to answer the paramedic calls. So the bottom line here is why are you paying for something you don’t receive?

 

Only when the town gets full oversight of these fire contracts will these abuses cease and your taxes reflect the services you actually get. Big Tree Fire Company 2006 tax return can be viewed at www.hamburgfirst.info.

 

                                                                                              Respectfully

                                                                                              Ford Beckwith