By JEFF CHUDZINSKI

North Country This Week

MASSENA -- Village of Massena Trustees approved a fire protection agreement with the town of Massena but not without one trustee dissenting prior to the approval.

Trustee Ken McGowan, the lone "no" vote on the resolution, said he was of the opinion that the town of Massena should pay more than they currently pay as part of the deal.

"I don't want to seem like I'm coming off harsh but we're not raising the fees, right? I'm just questioning if we maybe should add another percent because I'm sure Aaron's (Hardy) bills have gone up," McGowan said.

McGowan also said that while it may seem like a matter of semantics, the financial implications could not be ignored.

"I shared some information and I'm all in favor of the village doing fire protection for the town of Massena. I appreciate everyone's hard work on the contract. It's just, I don't think the dollar amount is enough," he said.

McGowan said he compared figures provided by Treasurer Kevin Felt versus those he found online while looking at taxes for residents in the towns of Canton and Potsdam.

According to McGowan, town of Massena residents pay one sixth of what village residents do for fire protection.

"If you compare that to Brasher, Canton, even the town of Potsdam, the town of Massena residents are still paying under half of what those residents pay," he said.

McGowan reiterated that he was "all in favor" of the village providing fire protection for the town of Massena but said he felt the town "should be paying their fair share."

McGowan also cited the number of calls the fire department responds to in the town, saying one third of all calls are to sites in the town.

"We just spent $100,000 on air packs. We just spent like $800,000 on a fire truck. That's just how I feel about it," he said.

Mayor Greg Paquin said he and the other trustees felt similarly, telling McGowan they took his words seriously while saying they would "do better on the next one."

"Just as a side note, when I was in Aaron Hardy's shoes, I brought this up and it didn't go very far then either. So it's not a new issue," McGowan said.

Trustees also agreed to spend around $100,000 on air tanks for the village fire department

The move will save the village over $30,000 right off the bat, according to officials.

Trustees voted unanimously to approve the purchase of the air packs, saying the existing ones in service are well beyond their service life.

"So, we have a couple of options for this. We chose the three year option, basically it's going to be $100,000 down," Paquin said.

By choosing the shorter term deal, Paquin said the village will save money on interest payments.

"I mean, we could have extended it out but it's going to save some interest. For some reason these air packs are 18 years old that we currently have in use, which are actually past their service time. I don't know why we waited so long and why we didn't take a look at that earlier but I'm sure budget constraints played a role," he said.

Paquin said the funds will come from the general fund as opposed to the capital reserve fund for the fire station. Village officials have said in the past it is their desire to build the capital reserve fund for the fire department to aid in future purchases for equipment ranging from turnout gear to fire trucks.

"We're going to have to start building that (capital reserve fund), we may as well start off at about $96,000 in that," Paquin said.

Another contributing factor to the decision is the increased interest rates.

Paquin said he had spoken with Treasurer Kevin Felt and they agreed that with interest rates so high, the larger down payment made more sense.

"I don't foresee interest rates going down anytime soon, unfortunately," Paquin said.

McGowan asked if the current tanks in use may be worth selling as a way to recoup funds, however Fire Department Foreman Aaron Hardy said he had already explored that avenue with little success.

"We're starting to do a little bit of research on that with a company, I think maybe for a donation or something maybe. I hate to say it but they're really going for pennies on the dollar and I know they are not manufacturing parts for the majority of the ones that we own now. We've only got a handful of relatively new ones that are going to be worth a little bit more than the other (older) ones," Hardy said.