Lower Saucon council approves nearly $313K for firetrucks, but questions department's 'radio silence'

LOWER SAUCON TWP., Pa. — The fire services tax is planned to foot the remaining principal and interest on one of the township's firetrucks, while also covering repairs on a fire engine.

Those totals come out to $293,718.58 for Truck 1621 and $19,150.24 for township-owned Engine 1612, respectively.

“Paying off the commercial loan early will have a positive impact on the fire company’s ability to undertake future capital projects,” Lower Saucon Fire Rescue President Scott Krycia wrote of the first request, in a letter to Township Council.

Officials last Wednesday voted 3-2 on the first motion, with Councilmen Thomas Carocci and Jason Banonis opposing.

The township and department are in an agreement to cover the truck payments on a 75/25 basis.

The latter vote was originally motioned to include pulling the nearly $20,000 in repair money from the township’s American Rescue Plan account. It later passed unanimously once the motion was amended to, instead, take the funding from the township fire services tax.

Another request from the department included $50,000 to support the Pay Per Call program, usually paid for through Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant money. That funding has run out, according to Krycia.

Council looks to hear more from department officials at a future meeting regarding the PPC program before approving any funding.

No one from the department was present at last week’s meeting. Councilwoman and Fire Services Committee liaison Laura Ray said that’s because the department was hosting its Citizens Fire Academy.

'Radio silence'

Banonis and Carocci said they found it curious no department representatives showed up after making such financial requests.

Such approvals could lead to a tax hike, Carocci said.

“Why they want to drain the fire services fund is so that with the budget coming up, they can raise the fire services tax again, because they’ll claim at that point that there’s not enough money in the fund,” Carocci said. “ … I support the fire services, the volunteers, but the fact of the matter is you can’t let them just run roughshod over the township’s finances — and that’s what they’re doing.”

Beyond that point and before any approvals, Carocci said the department should state their case regarding what he said was a state Department of Labor and Industry investigation into a junior firefighter's training injury.

Banonis said he’s reached out a number of times for broader information from the department about its operations, and has mostly been provided with summarized reports instead of detailed looks at fire response data and more.

He said he didn’t understand the “radio silence,” sending his most recent request for information in August.

“They seem to be ducking me,” Banonis said.

Councilwomen Ray and Victoria Opthof-Cordaro both agreed that Carocci and Banonis' concerns about the investigation and operations reports were unrelated to the vote at hand: a call to pay off the firetruck and repair the fire engine.

Taxpayer money at stake

Council President Priscilla deLeon said, “Just because it’s said over and over again doesn’t make it the truth.”

Opthof-Cordaro said the council has historically approved these types of requests with not much problem.

“I am concerned that there is a course of conduct just to create a wedge between all of council and our fire company,” Opthof-Cordaro said.

Township resident Anne Marie Slavick said “every penny” in question needs to be accounted for, considering it’s taxpayer dollars on the line.

“You have to be responsible with the money, can’t just throw it around,” she told council.