AVON – Voters refused to give money to the Phillips Fire Department to repair a roof during the annual town meeting Saturday. About 60 people attended the meeting.

Selectman Joyce Potter said the Avon and Phillips boards of selectmen met recently to discuss whether Avon should put money toward the repair of the Phillips Fire Station roof. She said the meeting yielded no results, with both sides holding their positions. “So we decided to see what you wanted to do about it,” Potter told voters.

Potter said she felt Avon pays for service from the Fire Department, but it is not responsible for the maintenance of buildings. “We are not in partnership with the town of Phillips,” she said. She added that if Avon residents wanted to be responsible for the maintenance of buildings, the town would have its own fire department.

Potter said the town pays out for other necessary services as well. One resident said he felt it would set a bad precedent with other service providers if the town agreed to do this. Another resident said such costs should be included in a service contract with that department. Potter said the towns have no contract, and she is not inclined to believe there should be one.

The town of Phillips asked for $1,200 toward the $4,000 cost of the roof plus operation costs, for a total of $8,100. The total budget for the Phillips Fire Department this year is $28,323, including the roof costs.

Avon voters agreed to give the Phillips Fire Department $6,900 as their share of operations and equipment. Voters also agreed to give the town of Strong $4,500 for fire protection.

Voters also agreed to raise and appropriate $21,053 toward the support of LifeStar Ambulance coverage. LifeStar officials said this is the worst-case scenario for the town. Rates for area towns have increased due to a reduction in Medicaid reimbursements.

LifeStar researched the issue and discovered that unorganized territories were not paying their fair share of the services.

This discovery led LifeStar to change its subsidy formula. It is now based on one-third valuation, one-third usage, and one-third population. The service has yet to hear from the state how that will affect the amounts towns pay, but the subsidy is expected to decrease about $3,000 for towns and increase about $10,000 for unorganized territories.

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