Welcome to the East Montpelier Fire District organizational website!
We are a small group of volunteers exploring the possibility of taking over the Crystal Springs water company operations. Crystal Springs Water Company has 115 connections in East Montpelier, and a moratorium has been imposed on any additional connections. The moratorium was put in place by the state because there is no way to accurately measure the output capacity of each of the 3 water sources that feed the water supply. As of January, 2011 we have applied for a planning loan from the State of Vermont, and have awarded a contract for Water System Evaluation that will be paid for with the funds from the loan.
Upcoming meetings:
We have a regular meeting at 7:00PM on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at the East Montpelier Fire Department conference room.
History of the Fire District: We investigated several options, including forming a Fire District, a Homeowner's Association, or a Coop. The latter 2 options require unanimity both to be formed, and for any decisions moving forward. We believe this to be unwieldy and unlikely to be successful as it would be possible for any single member to exercise unfair power by threatening to break that unanimity.
A Fire District on the other hand, requires only 20 stakeholders to petition the select board, ongoing operations would be governed by a Prudential Committee and member votes would pass by a simple majority. As a quasi-municipal organization, it would be subject to Open Meeting laws. A Fire District does require the support of the Select Board, who vote on it's formation and ultimately preside over the first meeting of the prudential committee.
At this point (winter of 2010-2011), we have formed the Fire District (East Montpelier Fire District #1), and received the East Montpelier Select Board approval to form. We always welcome and encourage anyone who is interested in the process to contact either a committee member, or contact the East Montpelier town office at (802)223-3313. We want to hear your comments and input, and strive as an organization to be open, and transparent in our operation and process.