Its amazing to me that these two candidates would mis-lead the public about these issues. They have their facts wrong and aren't sharing the full picture. I guess we come to expect that from politicians who just want to get into office and dont care if the lie to the public to do so. What a shame!

Thank you so much for sharing that and for stating what many of us have thought. They have all the facts wrong. They left out the recommendation the consultant made but wasn't chosen when Mr. Tansey was the chairman of the Board. The first recommendatuion was to build a new firehouse. The second was to move operations to Independent. Why aren't these two candidates talking about that. They are mis- leading us!

I am shocked to see so many lies in one article. Keep in mind, this article was written BY ROBERT TANSEY! FYI the men running against these two are a former chief of police and a current FDNY fire commissioner.

“Both Mr. Tansey and Ms. Smith oppose the Board’s decision to purchase a six hundred thousand dollar ($600,000) engine/pumper as the hired consultant concluded that the District had “too much equipment” and “apparatus” and did not function effectively or economically, thus requiring merger and downsizing of its fire apparatus fleet” -Tansey

But they failed to mention they are replacing TWO 30+ year old trucks with ONE new, modern, more capable, and much safer truck. This is being done with NO increase in taxes using funds that have been saved for exactly this purpose. So they are following the recommendation, downsizing, keeping firemen safer, and making the department more capable to fight fires with NO NEW TAXES It was approved 3 months prior to the election so the members can have 12 months to design a truck and not 9 months! I was not at the meeting but it passed by everyone in the room! This whole article is filled with LIES! I support firefighters and I will NOT VOTE FOR Tansey/smith

I think its a stretch to call these two candidates liers but let me say this - its wrong that they are not sharing the entire story. Very bad approach !

Thank you all for making sense of their post. I didn't sound right based upon what I had heard. I know I will vote for the other two candidates because we can't trust these two.

Here is a link to Holmes/Golub response to this article. At least they are honest as to what is going on.

http://marlboro-coltsneck.patch.com/announcements/morganville-fire-district-3-election

I was told to take a look at this article by a senior citizen in a mobile home community in morganville. They said that Tansey and Smith came and gave them some sort of speech. So I decided to look into this election a little further.
What I found was interesting. Tansey is the president of the one fire department (I thought they were referred to as chiefs?). From another article on the patch, I saw a quote stating that Tansey’s department (that he controls) has little to no members and is consistently failing to get fire trucks to go to fires. I also found that he was a commissioner for 12 years, and only when his department had a personnel problem did merge and consolidation become his top priority.
So I called around and found out that the other department has a lot of members and is consistently growing. They don’t have these problems and are very happy.
So it appears that Tansey is running to force a merger to save his own fire department.
I recently found out that the department with all the members actually just invited Tansey’s department to join/merge with them and help them rebuild a firehouse.
Tansey is out for his own department and agenda and could be preying on the elderly to get it done. He can’t seem to help/run his own department and now wants control over the entire district.
FYI I found very little information on Smith. Apparently she is not a firefighter nor has any experience with fire departments…

Due to the number of posts, my wife and I also looked in to this. We were able to get a copy of the report and the person who did the report did recommend the merger as well as the other facts mentioned by both Smith and Tansey. What we also found interesting is that there is another candidate, Roy Anderson, from the Independent Fire Company who is running, but is not being supported by his own Company. He has been a commissioner for a number of years and we were told he doesn't always vote with the majority, which may be a reason why he is not is not being endorsed. We have no problem with someone who is not a firefighter running. These fire houses are about a mile apart, and to spend $300,000 to renovate a structure when there is one both companies could move in to seems a waste of money to us. In looking at the budget, each company receives approximately $40,000 a year and has their insurance, gas, uniforms, pagers, and other expenses paid by the Commissioners. If they merged, we as taxpayers, would be saving alot of money. This is yet another reason why these elections should be moved to November.

Wow-have to love small town politics. We did some research on the candidates-Robert Holmes former chief has an “interesting” background. Not sure why having someone who is a FDNY commissioner is important. Not much on Smith or Tansey, but will keep looking. Also found out these two departments had around 300 dispatched calls, most of which were alarms. While that doesn’t diminish the importance of the fire service, it has put in to perspective what is going on. We were uninformed prior to seeing all these posts, but will be voting down the budget. We agree that spending all that money to renovate a building doesn’t make sense. Those funds could be better spent. Trying to find a copy of the report that Smith and Tansey refer to, but it’s not on the commissioners’ website, so that makes us wonder why not? No budget posted either. Not sure who we are voting for yet, but agree with Robin that elections should be moved to November so that we as the public, know what's going on. Maybe the town should completely do away with fire districts, consolidate equipment and save us all a lot of money!!!

My wife and I have talked about it and spent a fair amount of time doing research into all candidates. Holmes is on the board now and it appears the taxes are lowering AGAIN with his leadership and were on the rise when Tansey was on the board. (app.com) Holmes and Golub have my support. And i will vote YES for the budget to make sure these heroes have the gear they need to keep them safe.
looks like Bobby B was partly correct, 250,000 is to pay for hydrants/water. (read minutes on the website, 25% of the budget so less than half bobby) sounds like Marlboro Twp is taking advantage of taxpayers and using the firemen and scapegoats...

good post from the other page:
"Well first off they are not paid as volunteer fire fighters. They are paid in a political position. Agreed they should not be paid at all just as all the other local yocal politicians should not be. The volunteer firemen should be supported by everyone in this town and support the budget within means to keep the guys with new equipment and trucks. Their safety is of the most importance. Trucks also need to be replaced every few years since it is our lives they are trying to protect. You don't want the politicians and worst case unions coming into this town pushing for paid fire fighters. For the amount of calls town wide that would be a huge waste of tax payer money seeing groups of men sitting around all day everyday in a fire house and getting paid. Our volunteers do a great job and need support. Now understanding that if the call volume in that district is handled primarily from fire fighters from one of the two departments and if one needs to be closed to consolidate then its a no brainer. The one on Tennent road have not enough members to respond so in that alone lies your answer. Buildings are also remodeled a lot cheaper than building a new one so also if the building on 79 can be rebuilt with their own funds let them do it." - John Sterns

How about instead of trash talking people get off there butts and join Morganville volunteer fire company you could make a difference in a company that needs your help. No one wants toi volunteer anymore because you don't get a check at end of the week.

Before you vote find out all the facts ask to see the report that they had done and spent $18,000 of your money on.home/joleb not giving all the facts and ask why are they not supporting Anderson could it be because he doesn't always go the way of what Holmes wants.

Here are some facts:
Tansey spent $18,000 of your tax dollars for someone else to come and make the decisions for him because he was either incapable or simply refused. And then he ignored them when it was not what he wanted. $18,000 WASTED. Don’t pawn off the decisions, that’s what we have commissioners for!
Nobody wants to volunteer? Then how is the other Morganville’s membership booming with new members? (also see patch article for new graduates to Morganville independent and Robertsville) Sounds like and internal problem with one firehouse…
Smith/tansy voted no for a new truck? Maybe it is because they need to replace two 30 year old trucks. So the current board is; A) consolidating the apparatus, b) saving thousands on repairs, c) upgrading old equipment to better support the town and d) have SAFER equipment for our firefighters. And finally, this is done with money already saved for exactly this purpose. The current board has NO DEBT, the truck will be fully paid. Seems Smith and Tansey have their own interests in mind.
Did you know the current board LOWERED your tax rate! (app.com and patch.com)
Did you know that a vast majority of firefighters support Holmes?
Did you know that Tansey voted YES for 2 new trucks (about 1 million dollars) for his own dept and now refuses to do the same for the other dept, even though it is much less and more needed?

(cont)
How about the fact that the Independent invited the volunteer to merge with them and Tansey DEMANDED that the letter not be released to the public?! (told form someone that was at the meeting)
Did you know that when the board (under Tansy’s “leadership”) forced a highly protested merge with no plans or input from the firefighters, that the district did NOT save a single dollar?
I am voting for Golub and Holmes and yes to the budget. They support consolidation with a proper plan, to keep lower taxes, to increase firefighter safety, and much more.
-Retired Firefighter

to Truth Finder: then Vote all new people in.... benefit of 5 ppl running. U can vote Golub and Smith since you think Tansey was the problem

I do have to make a few comments in regards to Mr.Golub and others’, remarks. First of all when the merger was put into effect the members of the Morganville Volunteer (MVFD) Tennent Rd station welcomed the members of the Morganville Independent station (MIFD), knowing it was for the good of the community. It has only been in the past few years that the membership rolls of the Morganville Volunteer has declined due to people moving out of town or getting up in years, it wasn’t to long ago that the Independent faced the same problems. Membership rolls go in waves with volunteer companies. It’s up to the public to stop complaining and do their part and volunteer to keep the response time and manpower at the level it should be. The Morganville Volunteer Dept. in the last year spent $2100 of their own money to do a membership drive, has gone to the High School to recruit new members and started a FACEBOOK page, all to try to increase its membership.

So why, is it that people don’t volunteer anymore? When there is a call, we staff our trucks with the staff that responds, depending on the time of day or night and all are required to be wearing proper equipment and yes there are times that we might not have adequate staff. The town has a mutual aid or all call system in place for those times of days that the FD might be understaffed. Morganville Volunteer, as the community knows, has for years done 4 to 6 fund raisers a year, so they can maintain their building and grounds which they purchased themselves. In 1988 they paid for their own multi bay addition to house the new 95ft Tower Ladder that the district was buying. Now when it came time to merge the two companies they got estimates to put on two more bays if needed to house all district equipment. The estimate was $700,000 plus depending on unforeseen material costs, NOT one million as stated.

As for the District study, you have to read the whole study yourself to see the recommendations but I have included the final recommendation of Dr. Harry R. Carter and it is as follows. Pg 11-13 & 11-14
FINAL THOUGHTS
In case you missed my thoughts during this final section of the report, let me close this report by stating that it is my professional opinion that Station 28-3 and Station 28-4 be merged into a single new organization. While it would be nice to have a brand new building, with no history attached to it, with which to begin this new era, now is not the time to expect the taxpayers of your fire district to approve that effort.

In looking a the two stations, the Tennent Road fire station has a great deal of flexibility and room for growth built into its location. However, the operation of the rental hall should be phased out over a three year period. This facility would only serve to be a detractor to those important efforts to create a single fire department.

My staff and I believe that you can operate more effectively and efficiently if you come together as a single organization, with a smaller apparatus fleet operating out of a single station on Tennent Road. As a consultant, I can only offer advice. It is up to the Board of Fire Commissioners of Marlboro District #3 to take my advice and make use of it to create a new reality for your fire protection system.

To retired firefighter the volunteer company has two New members and one that recently finished the academy also thanks for the concerns