Monroe Joint Fire District will hold first public hearing on Oct. 19

MONROE - The recently formed Monroe Joint Fire District will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 19, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Monroe Senior Center on Mine Road. The district will present its first-ever budget figure at that time. The amount to be raised by taxes is $1,657,691. The tax rate for fire protection will be $4.03 per $1,000 assessed valuation. The new budget amount will be a line item in the town budget. It will be the same concept as the library. The town collects the money but has no say in the spending. The district, which was 35 years in the making, encompasses the Mombasha, Lakeside and Harriman Volunteer Fire Companies. Delays over the years included operational politics and technical reasons. They included the formation of the board, and arrangement of medical services. For example, Lakeside residents will now call for the Monroe Volunteer Ambulance Corps instead of Emergency Medical Technicians from that fire company. Taxing and financing between the Town of Monroe and the villages of Monroe and Harriman was another hurdle the firefighters had to iron out. Another major arrangement was the consolidation of fire apparatus and the utilization of the manpower of all the companies. Thomas Sullivan, fire district commissioner for the Mombasha Fire Company and chairman of the five-member Board of Commissioners, urged residents to attend. “We will explain the budget and hear the public’s comments,” Sullivan said.