Now, for some background and some math and some adding up to a conclusion of all this mess.
Let’s start with the Town of Fallston and the Fallston Volunteer Fire Department. Especially the Fallston Volunteer Fire Department that is about to go away. The Fallston Town Council surrendered the Fallston Volunteer Fire Department without firing a shot. They were blackmailed by the commissioners. Read on.
I received a Notice of Public Hearing in my Post Office Box in Fallston Monday evening. The notice stated there would be a Public Hearing June 6, 2017 where the Cleveland County Commissioners would vote whether or not to annex the Fallston volunteer Fire Department into the Cleveland County Volunteer Fire Department Service District. After attending many commissioner’s meetings over the past 20 years I wondered why Fallston would be fool enough to surrender their Fire Department to the crowd in Shelby.
So, I drove over to the Fallston Fire Department to see what was going on with all of this. Several Firemen told me they were tight on money and by joining the County Fire district they would get more money. I asked if you need more money, why don’t you justify why you need more money and justify raising the fire tax just for Fallston instead of turning control of our fire department to somebody in Shelby. They had tried that and the Commissioners wouldn’t let them I was told. Well, how much will this raise taxes? I asked. No increase in taxes I was told. More money has to come from somewhere I said. We don’t print money I said.
They were looking me in the eye and believed every word that they were saying to me was true. I knew they were repeating just what they were told, but I also certainly knew what they were saying was NOT true. Extra money does not grow on trees. It comes from somewhere and somebody pays. In this case I knew it was Fallston taxpayers that would pay the county and the county would return SOME of the money back to Fallston, after taking their cut.
So, early the next day I called the Mayor of Fallston about this. But not before checking the Commissioner Meeting Agenda for the meeting that very night. The information I got off the County Agenda indicated a 75% fire tax increase would be voted on that very night by the Commissioners. That is the MO of the Commissioners, have a vote before anybody finds out what is going on.
When I got in touch with the Mayor of Fallston, she indicated there would be a tax increase but did not know how much. And she indicated there would be a Town Meeting that very night where the town council would vote whether or not Fallston would join the fire district. AND, the Town of Belwood would also be voting that night too, since the Fallston Fire Department also serves Belwood.
I was even more alarmed about all this for the following reason. The Notice of Hearing stated the Fire District Boundaries would be revised and some kind of report would be drafted and both would be available by May 22nd for inspection. So, the Fallston Town Council, the Belwood Town council and the County Commissioners (with nobody from Upper Cleveland) voting on a plan and boundaries before the plan and boundaries even exists is a stupid and foolish thing to do. I don’t care whose toes I am stepping on when I say that. It is a formula for disaster. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but soon we will realize just how bad we are screwing up by signing on to something without knowing what we are signing on to. No wonder Shelby High School has such a high dollar baseball field, auditorium and swimming pool and we have basically nothing at Burns. I am totally convinced the Shelby folks consider us folks in the upper Cleveland County area to be fools and imbeciles. And why shouldn’t they? We prove it to them time and time again by letting them get by with their mess.