Editor's Note: Voters at the Annual Town Meeting sent a message to the Select Board and the Sandisfield Fire Department, Inc., that yes, the fire stations and properties should belong to the Town but that, another yes, they should be gifted to the Town rather than bought or seized by eminent domain.

Bill Price, Editor

Below are my thoughts on the warrant article related to the fire stations that was voted on at the annual town meeting. ALL THAT FOLLOWS ARE MY OPINIONS, having very closely followed this issue and having done a lot of independent research on it. I want to underscore that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING I have written here should be taken as criticism of our fire department volunteers. We have exceptional, very hard working and committed volunteers. Many of them, particularly Shamus and Alec, are very highly regarded as exceptional firefighters throughout the surrounding towns. Both Shamus and Alex are also members of the Monterey Fire Department. My criticisms here are only of Sandisfield Fire Department, Inc. (SFDI), its Board of Directors (BOD), and how the BOD has been and is currently running SFDI...and they have not a thing to do with our fine volunteers.

Great Barrington Fireman's Association

The first point I would like to make is that there CAN be SIGNIFICANT advantages to having a public non-profit in support of the town fire department. The best example of this is the Great Barrington Fireman's Association (GBFA). GBFA is focused entirely on fundraising to provide financial support to the Great Barrington Fire Department (GBFD). They receive ZERO funds from the town and provide significant financial support to the GBFD ($50K on their last annual tax return).

GBFA is run by a completely independent BOD, with independence meaning there are no relationships between members of the BOD either by blood, marriage or current/former business relationships. They are focused on and skilled at fundraising, and in no way undermine the authority of the GBFD or the town Select Board (SB) that the GBFD reports to. They work in close partnership with the GBFD to fund items that the GBFD decides it needs. They proceed with complete transparency, telling folks exactly what they are soliciting donations for and delineating exactly what they contribute to the GBFD, providing all details in their annual tax returns in a completely transparent fashion.

Sandisfield Fire Department, Inc.

The current situation in our case with the SFDI is completely different. SFDI currently does very limited fund raising (typically a single steak roast and boot drive each year). They extract and receive significant funds from the town, functioning more as a sink for town funds rather than a source of funds for the Sandisfield Fire Department (SFD).

Its BOD has nearly zero independence and is almost entirely related by blood, marriage or current/former business relationships (in violation of the IRS requirement of 51% or more independence to maintain tax exempt status). The BOD members do not appear to be either focused on or particularly skilled at fund raising, and the BOD often attempts to undermine the authority of the SFD and the Sandisfield SB it reports to.

And transparency is very severely lacking. In fact, in the past SFDI didn't file tax returns for several years in a row (2016-2019), leading to the IRS retracting its tax-exempt status (it was subsequently re-instated after submitting the missing tax returns many years after the fact). Details are scant on the tax returns, and they have been non-responsive to requests for additional information.

I find it very odd that a public charity would be non-responsive to such requests for additional information. I do not believe that SFDI has ever undertaken an independent financial audit, nor that their current tax preparer is a CPA. I also believe numerous significant issues would be uncovered in an independent financial audit and/or an IRS tax audit.

The Underlying Problem and Its Solution

In summary, the problem is not that of having a public charity in support of the SFD, or even that the public charity owns the buildings and land.

Indeed, the latter CAN be an advantage for the town. For example, suppose one of the fire stations needed a new roof. If the town owned the building, it would have to pay the prevailing union wage for the job. The public charity would not be subject to this requirement, lowering significantly the costs for a new roof.

What then is the underlying problem? The problem is the way SFDI is currently being run by its BOD. The easiest, cleanest, most complete solution to the issues we face after the annual town meeting is for the current BOD to be replaced by a completely independent BOD skilled at and focused on fund raising and maintaining the highest standards of financial oversight and transparency, working in support of the SFD, with no undermining of the authority of either the SFD or the Sandisfield SB it reports to. The latter is especially crucial.

Sandisfield residents vote for a Select Board member each year and hence have a strong say in the composition of the Select Board. Sandisfield residents have ZERO say in the composition of the SFDI BOD. SFDI undermining the authority of the SFD and/or the Sandisfield SB it reports in turn undermines the town's democratic process, disenfranchising its residents.

Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article 6

Which brings me to Warrant Article 6, which was amended as indicated in the adjoining illustration (ARTICLE 6 AS ADAPTED, WITH CROSSED OUT SECTIONS). I did not support the town paying SFDI to acquire the buildings and land, as I believe that infusing SFDI with significant funds would make the current issues far worse, leading to more undermining of the authority of the SFD and Sandisfield SB by SFDI.

Make no mistake about it. Money is power, influence and ultimately control. While I support the town acquiring the buildings and land by gift, even in this case I don't believe the underlying issues would be completely resolved. The SFDI BOD would still need to be overhauled to ensure that the authority of the SFD and Sandisfield SB is no longer undermined. If this step is not taken, I do not believe that any new Fire Chief that Sandisfield hires will be successful, unless that person is blindly loyal to the current SFDI President, Ralph Morrison.

Overhauling the SFDI BOD

I have taken steps aimed at "facilitating" an overhaul of the SFDI BOD in the form of filing complaints against SFDI with both the MA Attorney General's Office as well as with the IRS. While I am guardedly optimistic that these steps will eventually lead to change, it's impossible to know when it might occur, or to be certain that it will eventually occur. Hence, it is prudent to ask, "what other options might we have"?

Another Option to Consider

I firmly believe we should seriously consider outsourcing our fire protection services to another town (or possibly multiple towns for different regions of our town). We have not explored this in earnest, and I believe we should. Especially in light of neighboring towns moving to 24/7 on call fire protection crews.

I believe this could possibly result in higher reliability of service at an attractive cost. Though transit time would be increased, the time spent in rounding up a crew would be reduced to zero, and there would be no question as to whether a crew would be available. And remember, many of our calls today are already handled by mutual aid from other towns. Were we to outsource fire protection to another town(s), I would hope all our volunteers would join the fire department(s) of the partner town(s).

I want to be clear that I am speaking only about fire protection services here. I feel very different about EMS/EMT/ambulance services. For the latter, I feel strongly we need work towards 24/7 on call EMS/EMT/ambulances services located in our town, and do NOT support outsourcing or regionalization of these services. We have hundreds of EMS/EMT/ambulance calls a year, and only tens of fire protection calls a year. I think EMS/EMT/ambulance should be our highest focus/priority. Outsourcing/regionalization of this is likely to lead to unattractive response times and prohibitive costs. In contrast, I think outsourcing of fire protection could lead to improved responsiveness at attractive costs.

Where To From Here?

In summary, I think we should begin exploring in earnest outsourcing fire protection to another town(s). Meanwhile, and in parallel, we can entertain any specific concrete proposal that SFDI makes to the town. And then we can entertain and vote on a specific, concrete proposal at the Fall special town meeting.

Which path Sandisfield takes in this saga will largely depend on the SFDI BOD. If they insist on continuing to function as a "shadow" fire department to undermine the SFD and Sandisfield SB, I feel we will have no alternative other than to outsource fire protection to another town(s). This of course would solve our current SFDI problem completely. The fate of SFDI is entirely up to the SFDI BOD. As I see it, SFDI can either change or become completely non-relevant to the town. The choice is up to their BOD.

History is filled with examples - some of which are very recent and very public - of leaders clinging to power past their time, instead of stepping aside, resulting in significant damage to the legacy of the contributions they made earlier in their career. I feel this is happening in Sandisfield today, and hope it is corrected before it can no longer be corrected, and the legacy is tarnished beyond repair, and effectively erased.

Carl Nett
Town Hill Road

To Sandisfield Fire & Rescue:
May 10, 2025

I am the widow of Steve McCuin, he served this town in many ways and felt his duty was to keep our town safe. He was a fire fighter, police chief and EMT for many years, we missed several holidays and dinners to answer calls.

We need to support our brave departments.

As a Director of Nursing at the Nursing home I depended on them for help in many ways, they always went above and beyond to help. As a wife of my husband and I do have grandchildren who now give to the town.

We have all made not so perfect decisions but everyone does try their best and gives their all. We are very lucky and blessed to have these volunteers.

Dale McCuin
Sandisfield MA