WEST MARLBOROUGH: Who should pay?

Who should pay for local emergency services, and how?
At their March 6 meeting the West Marlborough Township supervisors agreed to start thinking about that thorny question and whether taxpayers should support the local fire and ambulance companies "to a greater extent than we do," as board chairman Bill Wylie put it.
He said a task force comprising several local municipalities has been gathering data about the local companies, their financial needs, the number of calls they make to each municipality, and other statistics, in an effort to figure out a "fair share" way to fund the services. Mr. Wylie he wondered whether West Marlborough should make use of the data as well. The supervisors agreed to discuss the issue at the April meeting.
Also at the meeting, roadmaster Hugh Lofting said the long-awaited project to shore up the bank along Rokeby Road and prevent future erosion was 90 percent finished. The next project, which is still in the engineering stage, will be to fix a small bridge along lightly traveled Runnymede Road that is crumbling into the creek. Mr. Lofting said the new culvert under the bridge will be seven feet high and 12 feet wide, and a new railing will be installed.