Fire district adopts its 2027 budget, sets December 8 commissioner election, and weighs a new chief's vehicle

The Speigletown Fire District’s Board of Fire Commissioners adopted the district’s 2027 budget Monday night, October 19, after the public hearing required by state law, held at the firehouse at the board’s regular third-Monday meeting. No one from the public spoke on the budget beyond a request for a copy.

The budget

The budget totals $714,170, up $42,693 or 6.4 percent from this year’s $671,477. The board is applying $40,000 of carryover, so the amount raised by taxes is $674,170, an increase of $2,693, or 0.40 percent. Where the money goes: $372,175 for operations, $80,453 for the fire truck debt payment, and $261,542 into reserves for the building, trucks, the chief’s car and equipment, including $42,000 toward turnout gear.

The levy splits by full value between the two towns in the district. Schaghticoke taxpayers carry $396,786, or 58.86 percent, and Brunswick taxpayers $277,384. Because Brunswick’s full value grew faster this year, the district’s worksheet projects the Schaghticoke rate rising to about $11.82 per $1,000 of assessed value, up 5.55 percent, while Brunswick’s drops to about $10.49, down 6.36 percent. For a Schaghticoke house assessed at $35,600 (about $250,000 market value at the town’s assessment ratio), that is roughly $421 for fire protection in 2027, about $22 more than this year. The line-by-line budget, alongside 2026, is on our fire district budget page.

The 2027 insurance renewal is expected to run about 10 percent higher, and the budget carries it.

A $318,957 state grant for the building

The district has been awarded $318,957 from the state’s Volunteer Fire Infrastructure and Response Equipment program, one of 65 awards totaling $25 million that Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on September 16. It is the second-largest of eight Capital Region awards, behind East Schodack Fire District’s $383,000.

The money will replace the firehouse’s 35-year-old diesel generator with a 40-kilowatt natural gas generator and give the building a new facade, with siding on the upper walls and a brick-look finish below, plus other upgrades as the budget allows. The board will have H2M, its engineering firm, survey the building in the spring before deciding how far the project goes.

A new chief’s vehicle

Car 1, the 2017 chief’s vehicle, will be ten years old next year, and the chief brought final quotes from three dealers, DeNooyer, Mohawk and DePaula, for an equipped Chevrolet Tahoe. The three came in within about a thousand dollars of each other, around $78,000, before the rear command box, which would be built separately. The money would come from the chief’s car reserve. Spending from a reserve requires a resolution subject to permissive referendum; no vote was taken, and the board expects to act in November. The old car would be sold, with the proceeds returning to the budget.

Commissioner election December 8

Two commissioner seats are open this December: a full five-year term and the balance of an unexpired term. The board chose not to nominate candidates itself, leaving the field open. The election is Tuesday, December 8, 6 to 9 p.m. at the firehouse, and anyone who wants to run must send a letter to the district secretary by Wednesday, November 18. Our notice has the details on running and voting.

Also at the meeting

The chief reported 21 calls in September, annual ladder testing passed across the board, and the $7,000 state DEC equipment grant closed out. Truck or Treat is Sunday, October 25 at Town Hall, as we reported. The board’s new meeting recording policy was in effect for the first time: the public may record open meetings after notifying the chair, and must give the board a complete, unedited copy within five business days. speigletown.org recorded the meeting under it.

Our unofficial minutes of the meeting are here, and the August 17 meeting, which we also recorded, is here.

Sources: the Speigletown Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners’ regular meeting and 2027 budget hearing of October 19, 2026, attended by speigletown.org; the governor’s September 16, 2026 V-FIRE award announcement for the grant amount and program; the district for the generator and facade plans; the district’s adopted 2027 budget sheets, provided after the hearing and transcribed on our fire district budget page; and the district’s meeting recording policy, a copy of which the chair provided. This summary is unofficial; the district’s minutes are the record.