MANCHESTER – Members of a local volunteer fire company said that the town needs to help buy new equipment, but some town officials said the equipment doesn’t need to be replaced.
Members of the Whiting Volunteer Fire Company, including Captain Tom Donner, asked the Township Council if they would receive funding to replace 22-year-old tires on one of their vehicles among other equipment concerns.
Fire Chief Ian Engel later spoke with The Manchester Times about the issue. He noted that while the fire company doesn’t follow the guidelines of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) which is not recognized in the state, “we want to make sure we are in compliance with everything.”
He noted that the fire company had previously met with Mayor Arace, Council President Roxy Conniff and Councilman Joseph Hankins. The combined budget for all three fire companies was around $228,000.
Engel said Whiting Fire Company has a rescue and tanker. The company needs 24 tires which would cost approximately $500 each. “That’s pretty expensive. They are not in bad shape if you look at them but they need to be replaced.”
Chief Engel said his fire company used to have 50 to 60 members and “I’m lucky we have 29 active firemen, seven are active fire police. Since I took over, we got nine more guys and we have five more applications in process. We just want to be treated the same as the paid department as we are absolutely doing the same job.”
Councilman Joseph Hankins responded to Donner’s comments during the council’s second meeting in June saying he felt it necessary to correct some exaggerations and misstatements made. He also mentioned the meeting with Conniff, Arace, himself and members of the Whiting Fire Department and Ridgeway Fire Department.
“We met on multiple occasions and asked them what their number one concern they had for resident safety. The paging system was addressed as an essential problem. Poor radios used to communicate for dispatching as the number one concern,” Hankins said.
Hankins said this was prior to last year’s election and after that these issues were brought up to Police Chief (Robert) Dolan “who felt there was room for improvement but not to the level that public safety was in danger.”
Hankins noted that the Council was asked to approve a $2 million bond which was approved during that night’s meeting and would address necessary repairs and funding for equipment. He expressed that Donner’s comments were meant “to publicly shame the council for not doing enough to finance the operations of the fire department.”
The councilman said as a past chief of all three township volunteer fire companies, “I remember when the department would actually take out a loan to finance fire trucks. When the township began purchasing fire trucks and when bonds were passed for their purchase there was an understanding that they would be maintained by the department that received the truck.”
He commended former “Mayor Robert Hudak and the council members who supported placing a line item in the budget for fire equipment. It was the first time that had been done since I was first fire chief in 1993 and tried to do that. Fast forward to 2023, 30 years. The speed of government frightens me.”
“Mayor Arace looked at last year’s budget of $180,000 that was budgeted for mandatory maintenance. He increased that budget to $230,000 so he went above and beyond what was done the year before believing the additional $50,000 was sufficient to recap $230,000 in taxpayer money that was being used to earmark for improved firefighting emergency services,” Hankins said.
The councilman added that he had looked into funding for the Whiting Fire Department and “much to my surprise they are sitting on $1,400,000 of donations that have gone into that fire company. I won’t say they want us to pay for everything but they have to realize this is a working relationship for both organizations and the council and the fire company have to work together to accomplish its goals.”
Regarding the issue of the aged fire truck tires and the NJ Department of Transportation’s recommendation of replacement “New Jersey is not a state that recognizes the NFPA and does not follow it,” Hankins added.
The Councilman said, “the issue that some folks have – and I’ll give you a prime example of it – is that the NFPA gave a 10-year timeline on all turnout gear so if the township was to buy a spare coat and kept it wrapped in plastic and put it on a shelf away from ultra violet light, and let it sit for five years, when it was pulled out it would have only five years left on its shelf life.”
“The large tire manufacturers were involved in the writing of these guidelines and it comes as no surprise that they want you to buy more tires. The (New Jersey) Department of Transportation standard he cited (of 10 years) I couldn’t find anywhere so I had Manchester Traffic Safety look into it and they could find nothing age specific of an age requirement on a tire.”
Hankins said the DOT stressed the tire having to have ample thread and no signs of dry rot.
