{"id":21700,"date":"2014-04-22T13:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T17:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=21700"},"modified":"2014-04-22T10:43:51","modified_gmt":"2014-04-22T14:43:51","slug":"pocopson-says-county-should-pay-share-of-fire-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=21700","title":{"rendered":"Pocopson says county should pay share of fire protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Township objects to prison, Pocopson Home residents included in share funding<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kelli Siehl<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"LongwoodAmbulance\"<\/a>POCOPSON \u2014 Township officials say that local residents should not be asked to pay for the fire-protection cost of residents at county-owned facilities, which now threaten to eat up one-third \u2014 or more \u2013 of the municipal budget, were the township to comply with funding recommendations.<\/p>\n

At a board of supervisors’ meeting earlier this month, board chair Ricki Stumpo revealed that based on the township residential and county population, it is being assessed some $280,000 just by Longwood Fire Company. The township also receives fire protection from Po-Mar-Lin Fire Company and EMS service from Good Fellowship Ambulance, and helps fund both.<\/p>\n

Stumpo outlined plans to move forward with efforts to have those residing in county facilities taken out of the equation when figuring the township\u2019s fair share cost for fire and ambulance services.\u00a0She stressed the board\u2019s commitment to the township’s taxpayers and said she plans to meet with Longwood\u2019s Fire Chief, A.J. McCarthy in the next few weeks to discuss the township\u2019s financial responsibilities.<\/p>\n

Currently, according to Stumpo, determination of the township\u2019s fair share payment includes the number of individuals being served at several county facilities, notably, the Pocopson Home and Chester County Prison. Officials say those numbers make up about a quarter of the township\u2019s total population.<\/p>\n

Stumpo read a letter received from Longwood Fire Company stating the township owes more than $242,000 for emergency services. On top of that cost, she said, the fire company wants the township to pay an additional $38,000 per year for the next five years to help purchase a rescue squad vehicle \u2013 that cost would be split between Pocopson and two other townships.<\/p>\n

The 2014 published Pocopson Township budget shows an allotment of just over $120,000 for Longwood fire and ambulance service which falls short of the billed fair share amount by a whopping $180,000.\u00a0 In addition, Stumpo reminded those in attendance that the township also pays for services received from Po-Mar-Lin Fire Company and Good Fellowship Ambulance.<\/p>\n

Stumpo said municipalities are mandated by the state to fund emergency services for their residents and \u201cit\u2019s not fair that we are paying for the services being used by county.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Township objects to prison, Pocopson Home residents included in share funding By Kelli Siehl, Staff Writer, The Times POCOPSON \u2014 Township officials say that local residents should not be asked to pay for the fire-protection cost of residents at county-owned facilities, which now threaten to eat up one-third \u2014 or more \u2013 of the municipal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[1170,692,5408,74,664,10,1233,70],"class_list":["post-21700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-chester-county-prison","tag-fire-protection","tag-funding","tag-longwood-fire-company","tag-po-mar-lin","tag-pocopson","tag-pocopson-home","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}