What is amazing is that Melodye Conway received more than 100 write in votes. Wonder what would have happened if you had a couple of weeks to really put a push on...the power is still obvious.

Wareham and Onset district charters, as I hear it, date to 1903~1907 and were always separate. Originally, anyone living outside the confines of both towns was considered 'out of district' and charged yet another rate for fire prevention and protection. Insert your own sarcasm.

The history of both is fraught with fraud and family trees of few branches.

Last edited by billw (2010-04-18 02:16:30)

marny wrote:

I don’t know how you could start to get rid of this ridiculous system. People are paying for two fire chiefs, captains, lieutenants etc. I think the fireman do a great job as shown by their brave actions at the recent fire on Cranberry Hwy which they contained. This old system needs to be updated and combined.

This isn't really a ridiculous system.  Both the Onset Water Dept. and Fire Dept. and the Wareham Water Dept. and Fire Dept. work fine independently and together as mutual aid.  I'm sure you will find things that we the citizens see differently from both fire depts. and water depts.

Years ago the Town of Wareham had one fire dept.  It was called the Wareham Out of District and Forest Fire Dept. and was town owned, with a full time chief and dispatcher.  We had, under the Comm. of Mass.,  a Chief Forest Warden and Deputy Forest Wardens for Wareham.  These same people carried another badge for Chief and Deputy Chief for the Town of Wareham's Out of District Fire Dept.  It really wasn't that complicated.

Anyone having town water (Wareham Water District Dept.) also had fire hydrants near their property.  The Water Dept. had it's own fire engines which hooked up to the hydrants.

Property with private wells, not anywhere near a District water line to connect to, had no hydrants either.  Hence, the need for the Out of (Water) District Fire Dept., which had tank trucks holding water and could refill from nearby ponds, etc..  This department's trucks were equipped to fight forest fires - a tougher truck with the ability to knock down and run over small trees in the way of getting to a forest fire.  We called them Brush Breakers and if you listen to the fire radio you'll hear them call for a Breaker on occasion - the same truck, design wise.

I have no idea of the dates these began, but it's been well over 70 years.  The new Town Moderator's husband, Howie Smith (a retired fire fighter of the W. District & former member of the Forest Fire Dept.) has more knowledge of the dates started and dates of transition of the two "Wareham" Fire Depts..  I'm sure if asked, he would love to tell you the history.  His son has written a book about fire fighting, I believe.

You have to remember that years ago, Wareham and Onset were heavily wooded.  Only a trickle of homes in the White Island area, there was no Shangri-La or Wareham Lake Shores development.  Charge Pond Rd. had maybe two or three homes on it, along with a dump where the Little League Field is and the "Town Barn" (Mun. Maint.).  These roads were mostly dirt.  Minot Ave. was a dirt road leading to Onset, Charlotte Furnace Rd. had a few cranberry buildings, pump houses and not much more.  There weren't any mobile home parks in West Wareham, no Routes 195, 495 or 25 either, only Routes 6 and 28.  It would have made no sense to lay water lines to these areas and also very costly.

As the town grew, changes were made, politics entered the scene and even though the Wareham Fire Department is the only one in Wareham, vehicles, buildings, etc. were transferred for use from the Town of Wareham to the District.  Mr. Smith and maybe some of the older firefighters can tell you who actually owns the buildings.  I am a little foggy on that part but I think they got the equipment to use until it needed to be replaced with new, sort of like payment for services rendered.  Nothing wrong with that.

Going back 60 or 70 yrs, the Town of Wareham Fire Dept. had volunteers.  The fire whistle blew - everything they were doing stopped and they sped to the trucks.  The chief or dispatcher would call about a fire and the volunteers family would call a list of men and their families would call men on their list.  When the trucks needed service, the men did it themselves - free.  If it was more than they could handle, it was sent to a dealer to be fixed.

The running of the District departments is not an area I am that familiar with.  I don't think Connolly is the first firefighter to be on the Prudential Committee and obviously if he was eligible to run there must be something in the rules about it.  We have had police men as Selectmen and they abstained from certain votes.

I don't know of the fraud you speak of Bill, but I'm sure you must know or you wouldn't have said it.  I do know that a lot of the older firefighters have children who have come up through the ranks, but not just in Wareham or Onset and that goes with police departments, too.  You know, "three generations of firefighters or police officers in a family", which you can read once in a while in a magazine or newspaper.  Admiral professions, along with school teachers, etc. having their children follow in their footsteps.

In my opinion only, I don't ever see uniting Onset and Wareham's Water and Fire Districts into one.  Not in my lifetime, anyway.

bornofwareham wrote:

I don't know of the fraud you speak of Bill, but I'm sure you must know or you wouldn't have said it.

Instead of answering directly and seeking witness protection in some god forsaken hell hole like Halifax, let me challenge anyone here to name one other Massachusetts town that boasts TWO fire departments.

Permit me also to note the speculators who created Onset were not about to cede their water rights to loathsome yankee hayshakers who commonly dismissed their end of town as the Irish Riviera.

How inbred where they here in 1900?

When the Reverend Jedidiah Morse visited Isles of Shoals, NH in 1820, he found the settlement reduced to a handful and married everyone immediately, to prevent further sin.

They'd burned down the meeting house, copulated with their siblings, hanged their only pastor, and practiced witchcraft. A generation later, the islands were deserted.

In 1873...

The Weight of Water

Barnstable also has several independent fire departments.

billw - In your last question regarding parasites, I think you have identified the very reason Onset is quite happy with its fire district... just take out the words "duplicating command and patronage,".

Townie  -  please allow me to quibble with your characterization that "both fire districts are operating in the black".

Why wouldn't they? Neither district is subject to the constraints of Propostion 2 1/2. for some reason not known to me, districts which can levy taxes based on property values (both WFD & OFD) were NOT included in the passage of the original referendum 30 +/- years ago. Thus, they operate much as cities & towns did in the days before Prop 2 1/2, with no particular limits on the revenue generated via the property tax.

Therefore, an attempt to compare the open-ended nature of the district's property tax revenues with the Town, which is required to operate within the levy limits set by law, is inappropriate.

Ex. Suppose a district wanted to purchase a new fire engine for 500K (I have no idea what they cost, humor me here). and, they decide to  fund the purchase on the next years's tax rate. No Problem. Just do it, if the voters at the annual meeting agree.

If the Town decided to spend 500K on a piece of necessary equipment, and the Town was operating at its levy limit under Prop 2 1/2, the expenditure might require an overide; either permanent, or temporary (called a debt exclusion). but this would require a series of steps to implement, including a vote at the ballot box. Far more difficult.

the more telling point, it seems to me, is the overlap and duplication in having two districts for the one community. Perhaps in the past, this set-up was logical. In this century, it seems hard to justify.

Hey! The town now has a superChief coming on board. Ready, willing and able   --   just ask him. If he can do police, EMS & harbormaster, then adding a fire department or two will be duck soup.

It is tough, though, to close out the family businesses.

Barnstable has five (5) fire districts.

According to the DOR's website, there are 140 districts in Massachusetts that set tax rates. Most are fire, water, or combos. Some appear to be for the maintenance of recreation areas around ponds, some are for maintaining a road. Only a little more than one-third of these districts have tax rates for fiscal year 2010, which ends this coming June 30.

Again, perhaps one can justify the formation of a district for a limited purpose in a defined area within a larger community. In terms of fire protection and water service, the Town of Wareham is beyond that point.

billw wrote:

TBL wrote:

Barnstable also has several independent fire departments.

Ok, I assume you vote and pay taxes here so I'll back up and ask the obvious question.

Does it make sense to waste tax dollars duplicating command and patronage, allowing parasites like the Donahues to stack the deck where no one watches?

I wasn't defending the practice. Just pointing out another town that I know of that has fire districts. But no, it doesn't make sense.

Last edited by TBL (2010-04-20 09:30:56)