BALLSTON SPA -- The Ballston Spa Board of Trustees on Monday approved a contract with the town of Milton to continue to provide fire service, with trustees lamenting over the town not paying more.
The board approved the contract, 3-0. Both Trustee Ben Baskin and Trustee Shawn Raymond were not in attendance at the meeting.
Baskin said in a text message Tuesday that the meeting was scheduled for 7 p.m. and that's when he arrived.
"Only place 6:30 was indicated was within an attachment for the meeting, which is easy to miss if one is not looking specifically for a meeting time," he said. "That poor level of communication with the board is unacceptable."
However, Mayor Frank Rossi said he emailed the agenda to everyone Friday which had the time listed as 6:30 p.m. and that it was only accidentally listed wrong on the village website.
Rossi said Raymond indicated he was sick and unable to attend the meeting.
Because Baskin and Raymond weren't at the meeting, Rossi became the deciding vote on the contract, passing it because the fire chiefs asked them to, he said.
"Our fire chiefs have requested us to approve this," Rossi said. "We did try to work with Milton for a $35,000 additional amount for next year in hopes we could have a better starting block to go forward from 2025 into hopefully a multi-year contract in 2026 in which the village would also put forward $25,000."
For fire service in 2026, the town will pay 96.7 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, below the $1.16 the village was willing to compromise on.
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The two municipalities have been going back and forth over support for the department, which Rossi said needs to pay for both a ladder and pumper truck and would like to start a Length of Service Program.
The department has ordered a pumper truck to replace an aging one it uses now -- at a cost of about $950,000. It is also nearing the point where it will need to replace its ladder truck, which allows the fire department to fight fires from higher elevations. The cost is currently coming in around $2.5 million. Rossi estimates $120,000 will be needed to get the Length of Service Award Program in place.
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During the meeting, Rossi also said he took issue with sentiments that the village doesn't put enough money toward the fire department. He said, over the last three years, the village has averaged $80,000 a year toward building improvements.
"It's an insult to not just us as leaders of this community but to the volunteers because it sort of sets a worthy level and that's not a good thing to show them," he said.
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Rossi said Wednesday it's unclear right now where conversations for a future fire contract with Milton will go.
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