Del. Fire Funding Issues Discussed

FENWICK ISLAND – An agreement to contribute more than $2,000 to the Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire Company brought forth discussions about taxation and last minute funding requests at a Fenwick Island Town Council meeting last week.

Mayor Gene Langan told councilmembers the Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire Company was requesting $18,000 from the ambulance coalition to fund salaries for three firefighters who have EMT training. He said towns that are a part of the coalition, such as Fenwick Island, will be responsible for contributing a proportion of the request based on the number of properties it contains.

“For example, Bethany Beach has 2,836 properties in town, so they would be paying the highest amount of this,” he said. “Fenwick has 814 properties, so proportionately that’s 11.2 percent and the dollar amount would be $2,057.”

Councilwoman Vicki Carmean expressed her concerns over the fire company’s last-minute requests.

“I think those volunteers that work for the fire companies are absolutely wonderful and it’s unfair of me to look into that organization from the outside and try to critique it,” she said. What I am concerned with though is this is an ongoing problem. The extra visitors we get in the summertime require extra personnel to handle emergency situations … We know each year what is going on.”

She took the issue even further by stating that emergency service demands from unincorporated towns meant having to fund additional firefighters and EMTs.

“We have incorporated towns and then we have a vast area unincorporated,” she said. “If someone needs an ambulance at the end of (Route) 54, the ambulance is going to go down there. We can’t say no. But I do think the towns are funding, or at least supporting this, in covering the unincorporated areas. It would be good if the fire company took a look at some way to approach the county council and have something done.”

She explained that by taxing the entire county for fire and EMT services, both incorporated and unincorporated properties would be contributing.

Councilman Richard Mais said the towns appealed to the county council in years past for a similar solution, but to no avail.

“They don’t want to appear to be raising taxes,” he said.

The town council voted 6-0, with Councilwoman Julie Lee absent, to approve the contribution request and to have the mayor and town manager send a letter in conjunction with the Association of Coastal Towns to the Sussex County Council.

“If you don’t let them know and they don’t hear it 15 times, they tend to forget it,” Carmean said.

About The Author: Bethany Hooper

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Bethany Hooper has been with The Dispatch since 2016. She currently covers various general stories. Hooper graduated from Stephen Decatur High School in 2012 and the University of Maryland in 2016, where she completed double majors in journalism and economics.