By Samantha Cossick
Public Opinion
QUINCY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Municipalities across Franklin County are having to come up with new ways to collect revenues for their budgets, but few, if any, have taken the path of Quincy Township where if the fire truck comes to your house, the township sends you a bill.
Quincy Township officials have been billing residents for fire and EMS services based on bills from the fire department.
“It’s been going on for a couple years,” said Bob Gunder, township supervisor. “It involves those fire companies that are billing us on a per service basis. We are billed for equipment and personnel that are not volunteers, mainly the driver.”
After an incident, the fire department sends a bill for reimbursement from the township for use of equipment and manpower, which is common across the county. In Quincy those charges are billed to the residence where the department responded.
The township bills for equipment and drivers only based on the amount of time at the scene, said Vicky Nunemaker, township secretary-treasurer."It’s based on the amount of time that the fire department is there,” she said. “They’re billed accordingly for that time and the equipment that is there.”
These fire companies include the Waynesboro Fire Department as well as three volunteer companies -- New Franklin Fire Department, Mont Alto Fire Company and South Mountain Fire Department, he said.
Although contracts exist between the township and the three volunteer companies, their responses into the township can be broken down to a per service basis for billing purposes as well, Gunder said.
“Even if we have a contract, they’re charging us with services so technically we’re able to charge those that aren’t billed on a per service basis,” he said.
The township’s budget for 2012 is $3,381,671, a decrease from 2011 due to Department of Environmental Protection grants for the TCE water site being used last year, Nunemaker said in January.
Residents of the township are charged 1.6 mills in real estate tax this year, she said in January.
This system of the township billing residents began when the Waynesboro Fire Department began charging the township on a per services basis three to four years ago. It applies to fire and ambulance responses at residences as well as at accident scenes, Gunder said.
“If (residents) are paying into the local services tax then whatever they pay into that is deducted from any bill that might be accrued on their property,” he said. “The other option to that would be for us to pass a fire service millage rate for that, which would be added to our 1.6 mills. That would make everybody pay whether they have an incident or not.”
Officials said their hope is that most residents would submit the bill to their insurance company since most home owners insurance policies cover a certain amount, Gunder said.
However, some members of the volunteer departments are concerned that this system of billing from the township may discourage residents from supporting their companies. Volunteers planned to address the issue at a township meeting tonight.
“We’re concerned that if our bills go out like that people are going to say we’re not going out to the carnival or our events anymore,” said Rich Sleicher, EMS vice president for Mont Alto Fire Company.
This practice was brought to the fire company’s attention recently when a resident said they got a bill from the township to cover the cost of the department’s engine and manpower at an accident, Sleicher said.
“I don’t think that’s the proper way to do it. To be honest with you, I don’t think the township residents know what’s going on,” he said. “Most of the county, you know they’re looking at these volunteer fire companies like we’re in the 1960s or 70s. It’s a different time. You don’t have the volunteers you had back in the 1960s.”
Townships throughout the rest of the county said they do not bill their residents and leave that up to the fire department. Officials with Lurgan, Metal and St. Thomas township could not be reached by phone Tuesday since their offices are closed that day.
“The township itself does not actively involve itself in any type of billing with the fire company,” said Georgia O’Donnell, Fannett Metal Township secretary.
In Greene Township, they are billed $50 every time an ambulance transports a patient to the hospital but that bill is paid for by the township, said Dave Jamison, chairman of the board of supervisors.
“Greene Township pays for all our ambulances that respond in the township,” Jamison said. “That’s just to help offset (the fire company’s) expenses."In Washington Township, there is no specific fire tax but taxes collected for the general fund cover fire and EMS costs, said Mike Christopher, township manager.
“The fire company does (billing), not the township,” Christopher said. “The township doesn’t get involved in that.”
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