Fire Department to replace rescue squad

The Belgium Fire Department plans to order a new rescue squad to replace its 22-year-old vehicle, but how the $230,000 vehicle will be funded is yet to be determined.

The department is supported by the village and town of Belgium, which are splitting the costs of the vehicle according to their equalized values.

At Monday’s fire department budget meeting, the town and village agreed the rescue squad should be replaced.

“Of all the trucks in this building, I feel that’s the most important truck we have because that truck’s out more than any other truck,” Village President Pete Anzia said.

“Two hundred times this year already,” Trustee Sarah Heisler added.

Anzia and Heisler are both members of the fire department.

“I agree with you, Pete, it makes more sense to get a rescue squad than it does to get a new pumper or tanker,” Supr. Bill Janeshek said.

The village had been saving money to pay for the vehicle and is ready to fund its portion of the purchase. The town has not.

Janeshek said state limits on the town’s ability to raise taxes don’t allow the town enough money to cover its share — which comes to about $126,000.

Typically, Janeshek said, the Town Board asks electors at the annual meeting held each spring for money for these types of purchases, and they agree to allow the town to borrow money as long as taxes return to the previous level after the purchase.

“We have to go before our electors. Us three (elected officials) can’t make a decision here,” Town Chairman Tom Winker said.

Fire Chief Dan Birenbaum asked what happens if the town electors don’t agree to borrow the money.

Janeshek said the money would have to come from somewhere else in the town’s budget, such as road maintenance.

Birenbaum said the rescue squad needs to be replaced. The air conditioning doesn’t work and the department chose not to fix it since it plans on buying a new vehicle.

A shortage of computer chips for vehicles is causing a delay in orders being filled. Birenbaum said it could take several months to a year from the time a rescue squad is ordered to when it getting a vehicle. He said he hopes to order the vehicle in June but could order it earlier if he gets the go-ahead from the village and town.

The glitch, Winker said, is the town electors haven’t heard about the rescue squad replacement yet.

“The only concern I would have is we’ve never said this out loud at a meeting in front of our electors. I think it would be better coming from us,” Winker said.

“I would feel very uncomfortable as chairman of the town agreeing to something that I’ve never brought up before the lectors.”

The village and fire department officials pushed back, saying the town is given a vehicle replacement schedule each year and that the town already verbally agreed to pay its share of the rescue squad through its budget if the electors say no.

“This isn’t fluff. This is for the welfare of our citizens,” Trustee Rose Sauers said.

“You’re going to have to pay for it somewhere. You’ve already said that,” Trustee Don Gotcher said. “What is the reason you can’t agree tonight?”

Winker compared the situation to a husband or wife buying something without telling his or her spouse about it until after the purchase.

“The other thing that the town is very proud of — we have no borrowed money,” Winker said of the town budget.

“And we’re not going to borrow as long as I’m on the board,” Supr. Tom Bichler said.

Winker said the Town of Belgium’s roads are the best maintained in the area.

“It’s because of pre-planning and doing everything that we did,” he said.

Gotcher asked, “Why don’t you pre-plan on this like you pre-plan on your roads and everything else?”

“If it’s going to take us a couple of months to come up with an answer to buy a rescue squad, then so be it,” Janeshek said.

Winker said the town used a portion of its American Rescue Plan Act money — around $20,000 — to replace heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment in the firehouse. He asked if the village wanted to help fund the project but was turned down.

“We’re doing that because we want this building to be maintained properly and to be run the way it should be run. I don’t want to hear about how you guys aren’t doing preplanning and everything,” he said.

The combined elected bodies voted to table the rescue squad purchase, 3-2, until after the town’s annual meeting in spring. All three town officials voted to table. Gotcher and Sauers voted against, and Anzia and Heisler abstained.

“Disappointed, but we’ll move on,” Birenbaum said.

In other business, neither entity debated the fire department’s 2022 proposed budget of $144,400, $5,400 more than this year’s budget.

New equipment included in the budget are five sets of rescue gear and five pair of gloves for $7,900.