Lafayette Fire Dept. to collect response fees

LAFAYETTE — The Lafayette Township Committee recently approved the township fire department to collect an emergency response fee.

According to the ordinance, people require fire department services during an emergency may be billed a "reasonable and proportional" amount to offset costs and expenses ariing from supplies, materials and provisions that are used.

Since Lafayette Township Fire Department is strictly dependent on volunteers to provide emergency services, the budget is limited.

The ordinance doesn’t come as a surprise to many, however.

According to The International Association of Fire Chiefs, cost recovery for fire-based emergency response services is becoming more and more familiar in city and county fire departments and in many fire departments, cost recovery is the standard operating procedure.=

Lafayette Fire Chief John Elzinga is happy with the change.

“So many other fire departments are collecting fees, it makes sense for us to do it to, especially since we are volunteer-based,” Elzinga said.

Many fire departments provide emergency services along freeways and highways, as is the case with Lafayette. Situated on busy Route 15 as well as the notoriously dangerous intersection at Sunset Inn Road and Route 94, Lafayette Fire Department responds to calls that may involve non-resident motorists.

The process varies from town to town, but once an ordinance is passed the fire department immediately has the authority to start recovering the costs and expenses incurred during the emergency response.

According to Ordinance 2014-12, "the chief or his designee will establish a schedule of fees for typical and common responses by the Lafayette Township Fire Department. For any response not on the schedule, the chief will prepare a bill based upon a reasonable determination of the costs and expenses incurred at the time of response. All bills will be sent out within 30 days of the response. In the case of a hardship, criteria will be set by the fire department that will allow for a waiver. It will be determined on a case by case basis."

The ordinance went into effect on Tuesday, Nov. 5.