{"id":39757,"date":"2018-06-07T08:44:52","date_gmt":"2018-06-07T12:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=39757"},"modified":"2018-06-07T08:44:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-07T12:44:54","slug":"letter-kennett-emergency-service-tax-doesnt-help-longwood-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=39757","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Kennett emergency service tax doesn’t help Longwood FC"},"content":{"rendered":"

To The Editor,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I’m compelled to <\/span>write to all taxpayers <\/span>in Kennett Townsh<\/span>ip <\/span>to correct a <\/span>dangerous misimpression concerning <\/span>the recent tax levied by the supervisors for <\/span>public safety. The Longwood Fire Company <\/span>DOES NOT RECEIVE <\/span>A PENNY of additional funding from <\/span>the new public safety <\/span>tax. We actually receive less money from Kennett Township since the forming <\/span>of the <\/span>regional Fire\/EMS commission<\/span>. <\/span>Police protection for the <\/span>township receives <\/span>the additional monies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Longwood recently distributed its annual appeal for community support <\/span>and we’ve <\/span>received back some <\/span>offensive comments from taxpayers <\/span>because of their misconception about <\/span>the distribution of <\/span>the new tax money. Some believe we are seeking additional <\/span>money on top of the <\/span>increased tax funds. This is n<\/span>ot true, <\/span>and the misconception has greatly <\/span>hurt our appeal. The <\/span>amount of <\/span>money we <\/span>received in our appeals <\/span>has <\/span>greatly <\/span>decreased and we are <\/span>convinced th<\/span>i<\/span>s <\/span>is because of the <\/span>township tax <\/span>increase.<\/p>\n

Maintaining Longwood’s <\/span>Fire and EMS teams for 24\/7 protection <\/span>of the community i<\/span>s <\/span>expensive and <\/span>costs mount every <\/span>year. The municipal support from our service area provided <\/span>to Longwood accounts for le<\/span>ss <\/span>than 40 <\/span>percent of our annual <\/span>budget. <\/span>While long <\/span>term, sustainable funding is <\/span>our goal – it did not occur during <\/span>this tax in<\/span>crease.<\/p>\n

Again, <\/span>the supervisors approved a <\/span>1.<\/span>9 <\/span>mills property <\/span>tax in<\/span>crease for <\/span>township res<\/span>idents. The cost <\/span>per household approaches $1,000 a year. Taxpayers <\/span>were informed that money would go towards <\/span>public safety, <\/span>which it does. The <\/span>new funding distribution doe<\/span>s <\/span>not <\/span>include<\/span> any additional <\/span>funds for Longwood F<\/span>ir<\/span>e Company. The supervisors failed to <\/span>make that distribution clear when <\/span>the tax <\/span>was <\/span>before public comment.<\/p>\n

Longwood Fire <\/span>Co<\/span>mpany needs <\/span>your <\/span>su<\/span>pport to keep Longwood operating to protect all our <\/span>neighbors. We understand <\/span>the financial hardships <\/span>of today’s world, our <\/span>personnel experience the <\/span>same, <\/span>but <\/span>protecting our families from <\/span>fire and medical emergencies comes at a price. <\/span>Longwood <\/span>Fire <\/span>Company <\/span>would appreciate <\/span>any add<\/span>i<\/span>tional <\/span>donations <\/span>to the operation of these <\/span>va<\/span>luable life-saving services.<\/p>\n

\n

A.J. McCarthy, <\/strong><\/p>\n

Fire Chief,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Longwood Fire Company<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To The Editor, I’m compelled to write to all taxpayers in Kennett Township to correct a dangerous misimpression concerning the recent tax levied by the supervisors for public safety. The Longwood Fire Company DOES NOT RECEIVE A PENNY of additional funding from the new public safety tax. We actually receive less money from Kennett Township […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1035,74,11265,70],"class_list":["post-39757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-kennett-township","tag-longwood-fire-company","tag-services","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39757","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=39757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39758,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39757\/revisions\/39758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}