LEYDEN — A proposal to contract the Greenfield Fire Department for Leyden’s fire coverage is off the table for now, due to newly discovered issues that could affect residents’ insurance costs.
The two towns are still pursuing an agreement, but the details will have to be rethought.
Previously the Leyden Selectboard had planned to finalize the deal after the Annual Town Meeting, by which time the Greenfield City Council likely would have OK’d the paperwork.
But last week, Leyden Selectboard and Greenfield Fire Department officials learned that the deal would change the ratings that determine insurance costs in the two towns, potentially increasing insurance costs for residents of the two towns, Leyden Selectman Jeff Neipp said.
Because the deal would have re-mapped the Greenfield Fire Department’s coverage area to include all of Leyden, the ratings agency would have had to re-evaluate the entire area of the two towns in light of the fact that it would have been served by a single fire station.
Representatives from the Insurance Services Office, the ratings agency, were unable to predict how exactly the ratings would be affected by the deal, Leyden Selectman Neipp said.
And the soonest the re-evaluation could have happened would have been at least one year after the signing the new contract, by which point it would be too late for the two towns to back out of the deal if they didn’t like their new ratings, Neipp said.
Still, the two towns are continuing to pursue an agreement, Neipp said. Depending on if and when town officials are able to find a workable strategy, the soonest it could happen could be later this year, Neipp said, as Leyden typically holds a specially scheduled Town Meeting in the winter.
“Everything’s on hold now,” Neipp said.
Leyden is currently covered by its own volunteer fire department. The town’s problem is that the costs associated with running a fire department — equipment, maintenance, certifications — have increased in recent years as legal regulations have risen.
Membership is also down, as is the case with many volunteer departments in the region. Leyden’s department has seven members, two of whom live in Leyden, five in Greenfield. Officer in Charge Brian Pelletier said that ideally, the department would have at least a dozen.
Leyden selectmen have frequently cited a 2013 study by the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, which predicts a major decline in volunteer-based fire departments, based on population trends and changes in associated costs.
Colrain Fire Chief Nick Anzuoni, who was at an informational meeting on Monday night hosted by the Leyden Selectboard, supported that view: “The day of one town trying to do it all by themselves is rapidly coming to an end. We really can’t survive without the other towns,” he said.
“What we’re butting our heads against,” said Leyden Selectman Lance Fritz, “is that small towns cannot practice economies of scale. Some time down the road, all the small towns are all going to turn into a county, and we’re going to be just like the South, where it’s county government, not town government. … Maybe 20, maybe 30 years from now, all these little towns will cease to exist.”
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ex 261.