Woodstock has enacted a property-tax break to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of its volunteer firefighters and rescue-squad personnel. The town board hopes the measure will provide another incentive for new recruits.
Various communities have been experimenting with different approaches to the problems caused by the lack of volunteer providers of emergency services.
In Woodstock, the board of fire commissioners will each year determine who is eligible, and that list will be forwarded to the assessor’s office. For each qualified member, up to ten percent of the assessed property value will be exempt from property taxes.
“There’s two ways to get this,” town supervisor Bill McKenna said. “You can either obtain 50 points based on activity in LOSAP [Length of Service Awards Program] or you can actually be in LOSAP and get a year of service credit.”
Volunteers get points based on activity, such as participating in training, responding to calls and helping with administrative tasks. Those who obtain 50 points get credit for a year of service and receive a token pension of about $20 per year of service up to 25 years.
Similar criteria will be used to determine who is eligible for the tax exemption. Anyone who has 20 or more years of service will no longer need to earn points.
To be eligible, the volunteer must reside in Woodstock, and the property involved must be their primary residence.
Council member Anula Courtis seconded the motion at the February 13 meeting of the town board.
“I second that because we need our firefighters, and you all are wonderful. Thank you tremendously,” she said, as a roomful of volunteer firefighters and rescue-squad personnel gave a round of applause.
The exemption was approved unanimously. Council members Bennet Ratcliff and Maria-Elena Conte were absent.
Evan Holland, a Woodstock fire commissioner, said every little bit helped as the fire department struggles to recruit volunteers.
“We very much appreciate and thank town supervisor Bill and the board members and Anula and Laura here tonight for your support and your help here because it will help us recruit new members, maintain existing members, and hopefully generate more activity,” said Evan Holland.
Supervisor McKenna admitted he’s not been active the last couple of years in the fire department. ‘This position monopolizes little bit of my time, especially in times of need,” he said. “But I look forward when I’m done here to coming back and spending a few more years with the fire department.”
Holland said being a firefighter was a huge commitment. “It’s not like you just sign up and say, ‘Oh, I’ll be a firefighter,’” he said. “We’re talking hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of classroom and physical training, and then just the continual aspect of it so you can stay certified to be whatever role you’re doing: exterior firefighter, interior firefighter, apparatus driver and pump operator.”
Each of the district’s five companies has a line officer, captain and staff officer/president who will meet and determine who is eligible for the exemption. Company 1, the headquarters, serves the main part of Woodstock, Company 2 Wittenberg, Company 3 Lake Hill, and Company 4 Zena. Company 5 on Route 212 near the Bearsville Flats is the rescue squad, servicing all parts of town.
The department deals with an ever-rising number of calls. The department is completely volunteer save for four paid paramedics, the secretary-treasurer and a maintenance worker. Due to lack of volunteers, the commissioners recently approved paying four part-time EMTs.
“There were something like 1300 calls last year, and I don’t think people realize just how busy we are, a lot of it being medical rescue, because we’re an older population,” Holland said. “We don’t have any emergency rooms that people can go to, so the medical side of us really runs a lot of calls for that, as well as the fires and the automobile accidents and flooded basements and everything else.”
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