Community Corner

Letter: Support District 2 Incumbents in Saturday Election

Lt. says district is well-managed keeping budget, taxes flat

Letter as submitted by resident Pete Sabey:

As a firefighter in Toms River Township Fire District #2, which is made up of Pleasant Plains, North Dover, and Silverton sections of town, I would like to address some of the rhetoric and misinformation that has been put out in campaign for Fire Commissioners.

I would like to point out that there have been some blanket statements made by the candidates that need to be corrected. In District 2 there has NEVER been any question of the integrity of the Fire Commissioners or the transparency of spending.

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A number of the candidates and concerned citizens groups have been to our Commissioners meetings and every question about the budget and spending was answered honestly and openly.

Comparing Lakewood to Toms River is comparing apples to oranges. Lakewood has a considerably smaller budget, that is true. However they do not maintain a training facility as Toms River does in the Toms River Fire Academy, which provides training to not only the Toms River firefighters but also the Toms River Police Dept as well other towns. Lakewood also does not maintain its own radio/communications network and dispatchers.

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Lakewood has its own water company, where Toms River is forced to pay to ‘rent’ hydrants and reimburse private communities such as Lake Ridge and Green Briar Woodlands for their association’s rental of the private hydrants.

Lastly but possibly most important to the taxpayers of Toms River is they do not have a Bureau of Fire Prevention that does the education of the public and the inspections and code enforcement of the residents.

In fact in District 2 the portion of the 2012 budget to be raised by taxes is actually lower than last year, only by a few hundred dollars, but with rising fuel, maintenance and materials that is quite an accomplishment.

Also because of fiscally responsible actions and cooperation between the Chiefs and Commissioners, District 2 has not bonded out a new vehicle for over a decade. All new apparatus purchases are planned for years in advance and the money is set aside so that when it comes time to purchase the apparatus the money is there to pay for it and we don’t have to cost the taxpayers more money by bonding the purchase and then paying interest on it for years.

Ken Taylor, Roger “Joe” Brown and Tom McCann are outstanding members of the fire companies that are active firefighters and contribute to the individual organizations every day, they are NOT in any way ‘political machine incumbents’ and have never been associated with any political organizations.

Each of them have dedicated 20-30 years or more of their lives to the fire service in the town in which they live.

I have put my life on the line with all three of these people and would do so again without a thought.

These guys have had nothing but the best interest of the citizens of Toms River in mind for decades whether it is at an accident scene, fire or at the budget meetings. Your brave and dedicated volunteers absolutely deserve the community’s respect and support, so why would you vote no on a budget that has not increased, and why would you vote for someone other than the men that have given their blood sweat and tears for the community they live in and volunteer in?

Finally I would like to say that I do not condone the on the matter of the property referendum in December. District 2 did not use a special election for our portion of the generator for the fire academy because we felt it would be more appropriate to list that question with the regular election questions and the budget. That debacle went down without the support and prior knowledge of the firefighters.

As a firefighter and an Officer, I feel that the commissioners of District 2 communicate fully with the companies and give us 100 percent support.

This being said I feel that it would be unfair to lump both districts in the same boat. District 2 Commissioners have the FULL support of the firefighters they represent and have done a great job with the budget!

Silverton Vol. Fire Department Lt. Pete Sabey


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