Pictured is the fire department located in Campville, N.Y. located on the old Route 17C and heading towards Endicott, N.Y. (Photo by Wendy Post)
Plans are underway to construct a new 7,000-square-foot, four-bay fire station on State Route 38, near the Tioga County Jail. The new construction comes as part of the Town of Owego Fire District’s decision not to renew its current contract with the Village of Owego Fire Department and to instead seek service from Campville Fire Department for the area currently covered by the village.
The Town of Owego Fire District – which is a separate entity from the Town of Owego – does not have its own firefighters but instead contracts with fire companies such as Campville and South Side Fire Department. Currently, they also have a contract with the Village of Owego Fire Department for coverage in the north end of town. However, that contract is slated to end on June 30, at which point the fire district will expand its contract with Campville so as to include coverage for that area in the north end of town.
Walter Jones, president of the Town of Owego Fire District Commissioners explained, “We’re ending the contract with the village to cover that area because it’s cheaper for us to build this building.” The current contract with the village is for $135,000 per year; while the new contract for that same area will be a little over $80,000. However, the new contract will also include the cost of constructing the new $1.1 million fire station.
The new station will be constructed by and fully owned by the Campville Fire Department, which is why the cost for construction is included in the contract price they have offered to the fire district. Thus the fire district does not incur any debt and, according to Jones, will in fact be saving money for the coverage of that area.
Despite the savings the fire district will realize from the contract change in the north end of town, district taxpayers will still see an overall increase in their taxes due to the loss of a $229,000 contract to supply paramedics to Apalachin Fire Department’s ambulance service. As a result of that substantial loss of income, the fire district’s 2015 budget will exceed the state’s tax cap and fire district property owners who now pay $1.78 per $1,000 of assessed value in fire district taxes may pay as much as $2.18 per $1,000 of assessed value next year.
Jones said that this new addition to the Campville contract has been a long time in the making, stating, “We started this five years ago, this isn’t something that just popped out.” However, because the contract with the Village of Owego contract didn’t end until mid-2015, there was no way to firm up a less costly contract sooner.
Both Jones and Campville Fire Department President Jennifer Ford said the plan is to have the new station ready by July. Jones stated, “We’re hoping to be done by July. It’s a very aggressive thing, but we’ve got a backup plan to go into operation even if it isn’t done. We have equipment and people ready to go to pick up that area.”
Ford said that one of the concerns she has heard is that a new station would entail significant expenditures for the purchase of new trucks. Because the trucks are owned by the fire district and not the Campville Fire Department, any new equipment purchases would affect taxpayers. However, Ford explained that the new station will not require the purchase of new equipment because some equipment was already scheduled for replacement this year.
Jones explained that the fire district held a public hearing regarding its proposed 2015 budget – which included the new Campville contract – on Oct. 21. He said, “We had the public meeting and there was nobody that said they were opposed to it after we explained to them what we were doing and why we were doing it.”
One person who has expressed opposition to the new fire station is Patrick Gavin, a Village of Owego firefighter. Gavin said, “I don’t see a need for it, I think the area of the town of Owego is currently covered by the village of Owego.” Gavin also expressed concern about whether Campville had enough firefighters located in the vicinity of the new station to provide a sufficient response to area needs.
Ford was unequivocal in her assertion that Campville has sufficient staff to handle an additional station. She stated, “We’re not that lackadaisical that we’ll just put a station out there that we wouldn’t be able to man. We wouldn’t be building this station if we didn’t have the manpower to staff it.”
