Voters approve fire budget
Voters in Mt. Laurel approved the fire district budget with no tax increase on Saturday, Feb. 16. The vote passed 655–233.
According to the fire district’s budget, approximately $57,000 was set-aside in the 2013 budget for the purchase of two command SUV vehicles that will replace two existing vehicles.
Approximately $8.3 million will be raised by taxation to support the 2013 budget.
Mt. Laurel Fire Department Administrator Scott Jones said the budget may have increased from 2012, but residents will continue to pay the same amount of taxes.
In 2012, each resident paid 24. 2 cents per $100 assessed value to the fire department.
Taxes will remain the same, but the budget has increased $520,019 from last year.
“The 2013 budget contains funds that rolled over from 2012 for the retroactive pay that we will owe employees,” he said.
The tax rate is unchanged, Jones said.
John Cornue was elected to serve a three-year term on the fire commission with 509 votes. He defeated Douglas Jones, who received 308 votes.
Cornue, the current chairman of the fire commission, has been in office for two terms for six years.
Before becoming a member of the commission, Cornue’s first career was with a railroad company. His career “somewhat prepared” him for the fire district, he said.
“I spent a lot of my career working with other railroads, coordinating operations and trying to do things better and more efficiently,” Cornue said, adding his experience with working together with various organizations and internal employees is “very similar to what a fire commissioner needs to do.”
“We represent the community, and I think that our fire department personnel do an excellent job in getting out in the community,” he said.
Cornue hopes to continue the fire commission’s progress toward the future.
“I think that we are able to put a good organization in place, and it needs to continue to grow for the future.
With that, there is long range planning, and making sure we are taking care of our physical plan and our people,” he said.
