JACKSON, NJ—In February, the voters of Jackson Township defeated two of three fire district budgets, leaving the Jackson Township Council to decide the fate of the budgets for fire districts 3 and 4. Low voter turnout led to residents rejecting those budgets at the ballot box.

The Jackson Township Council has recommended that Jackson Township Fire Districts 3 and 4 consolidate with Jackson Fire District 2 after residents voted down their annual budgets in the February fire elections.

Jackson Fire District 2, which consolidated with District 1 several years ago, saw its budget approved by voters. The budget for Districts 3 and 4 will go before a council vote at the next township council meeting.

By law, the council must now balance the will of the voters and the needs of the districts and decide how to proceed with the existing budgets.

Council members said they would prefer not to have to make this difficult decision. Instead, they advised the districts to consider a townshipwide consolidation that would remove the annual vote on the fire budget.

Last week, council members offered the commissioners of districts 3 and 4 an opportunity to explain their budgets to the community. After listening to each district’s budget review, the council asked why the districts would not all consolidate into one townshipwide fire company.

The commissioners said low voter turnout in the February special election allowed a small number of voters to vote against the budgets. High turnout was seen in the senior communities within those districts.

Under New Jersey law, a special election to vote on the budget is held each February if a community’s fire department is divided among multiple districts. If the districts were to consolidate into one department, the fire commissioner election would move to the November general ballot, and the budget would not be up for a vote. Kuhn asked the commissioners if it would make more sense to consolidate to remove the possibility of future low-turnout elections impacting the important fire district budgets.

District 3 said it was in the process of consolidating. However, District 4 refused the notion of consolidating, saying it would not benefit their district.

During the discussion, Kuhn and the township council verbally agreed to a new budget amount with District 3, which was negotiated at the public hearing, that would trim money from the budget, adhering to the will of the voters to the election but ensuring that the fire districts would also be able to increase their budgets to account for capital purchases and inflation-related expenditure increases.

No agreement was reached with Fire District 4.

“We are faced with the unpleasant task of respecting the will of the voters, regardless of how few there were, but also making sure the fire districts can continue to operate efficiently and effectively,” Kuhn said. “By consolidating the districts, we would never have to be put in a position like this again, and the fire department budget would not be subjected to the pitfalls of such a low voter turnout, which happened this year. It’s a win-win for the residents and the fire department.”

“We do not want to cut anything from the fire district’s budget,” said Councilman Mordechai Burnstein. “We fully support our brave firefighters, but we also have to weigh the value of an election in our decision.”

Burnstein also said that consolidating the fire districts into one township-wide fire department would benefit the township and the firefighters.

“A consolidated district will allow the fire department to get better rates on insurance and equipment and reduce expenses township-wide,” he said. It would also move the elections to the November general election each year to increase voter turnout. The budget would work the same way as the school district and township, and the commissioners would not have to put it to a public vote each year.”

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