EAST HAVEN, CT—With more than 50 East Haven firefighters and supporters in the audience, the Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday night, with one abstention, to increase the tax abatement volunteer firefighters receive from $1,000 to $1,500—and eventually to $2,000.
The only council member who didn’t vote in favor of the increased abatement was Chairman Ken McKay, R-1, a retired career firefighter and five-decade member of the volunteer Foxon Company 3.
But he told the assembled firefighters, “We really support you.”
The issue came up at a time when communities all across Connecticut and the country, as in East Haven, are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit volunteer firefighters.
Thirty-nine volunteer firefighters currently qualify for the tax abatement, which costs the town $39,000, said Finance Director Paul Rizza. The increase the council approved Tuesday night will cost the town an additional $19,500, Rizza said.
The unanimous vote to increase the incentive followed a series of pleas, including from Fire Chief Matthew Marcarelli and former Chief Wayne Sandford, during a public hearing at the council’s regular monthly meeting in the East Haven Senior Center.
“As far as I’m concerned, as chief, I completely endorse this program; $2,000 is not enough, but I’ll take when I can get,” said Marcarelli.
Marcarelli explained how the abatement program for the town’s four volunteer fire companies works. It goes on a point system requiring volunteers to earn at least 150 points before they receive the benefit, Marcarelli said.
The four volunteer fire companies, which work with and supplement the town’s career firefighters, are Company 1, based at Fire Headquarters on Main Street; Company 3 — also known as Foxon Volunteer Fire Rescue — based at 1420 N. High St.; Bradford Manor Company 4, based at 85 George St.; and Riverside Company 6, based at 46 Short Beach Road.
“There is no such thing as a social member as far as this ordinance is concerned” and “no social members receive this benefit,” said Marcarelli.
Marcarelli pointed out that East Haven “doesn’t have a pension program for volunteers” like some of its neighbors, such as North Branford.
Joe Piccirillo, a volunteer for 54 years who is a longtime member of the Fire Commission, pointed out that volunteers frequently “get up in the middle of the night” to go to calls and, like career firefighters, must be certified.
Volunteer firefighter Alphonse DeLucia told the council, “We have to go through all the same training that the career fire department does. You have to be certified by the state. You have to pass the test for Firefighter 1 in order to go inside.”
In addition to all that, “we work just as hard” as career firefighters, DeLucia said.
Board of Finance member and Republican mayoral candidate Sal Maltese endorsed the increase, telling the council that volunteer firefighters are “doing things that the rest of us could never do,” and when they do, “their life is on the line.”
Councilman Joe Carfora, D-3, the Democratic candidate for mayor, said he had a structure fire at his home in July 2011 and “my house would have been a total loss if it were not for the volunteers. ... I am 1,000 percent for you guys.”
“You’ve made something of yourself and you’ve given back to your community,” said Councilwoman Linda Hennessey, R-4.
Sandford, under whose tenure the abatement program began, said he fully agreed with Marcarelli that “those brave firefighters who served our town” — while receiving no pay — deserve the benefit of a tax abatement.
He urged the council to increase the benefit but not change the way it’s conveyed.
Under the current system, younger firefighters who don’t own homes or have cars expensive enough to reach the abatement threshold are cut checks for the difference, Sandford explained, urging the council to maintain that.
“I think if you change the benefit to something that’s tied to the motor vehicle, some of the volunteers who are in the room are going to get injured,” Sandford said.
Town Attorney Joseph Zullo said that under the ordinance before the council, the benefit “is not tied to motor vehicles.”
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