ACCOMAC, Va. - In an 8 to 1 vote the Accomack County Fire Company Commission voted in favor of a county-wide tax to include Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company. The vote has people from Chincoteague upset.
Smaller companies like Bloxom and Parksley say they are in favor of the tax because they need the help.
"A lot people don't realize that we were going to lose somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 to 18 thousand dollars if this did not go through so now this will put everybody on an even playing field," says Phillip Kelly, Chief of the Parksley Volunteer Fire Company.
The tax would require tax payers in Chincoteague to pay more money to the county. The Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company(CVFC) is a self sufficient company that does not rely on funds from the county. Members of the company are upset by the measure.
"Chincoteague doesn't feel that it's fair for us to pay money in to maintain everybody else's fire station. We're not asking them to maintain ours, we're not asking them to staff ours, we're not asking them to pay for our paramedics or anything like that. We're asking for what's fair," says Denise Bowden of the CVFC.
The measure will now go to the Accomack County Board of Supervisors for a public hearing in a couple of weeks in Accomac, Va.
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