A member of the New England Fire Co. No. 1 has once again asked Walker Township officials to raise the fire tax.

Fire company member Charles Felty attended Saturday morning's special board of supervisors meeting.The board discussed the fire company's budget, and some items that had discrepancies on amounts and some bills that have not been paid from past years.For 2014, it was stated there's still an outstanding bill for the security system installation and yearly maintenance, and the board discussed a five-year contract that needs to be revisited upon expiration to save the township money because a vendor is bidding a better price for the maintenance part of the contract, which could cut the bill in half.Expenses for tax preparation and audits for the 501c3 nonprofit status of the New England Fire Company were discussed in light of the township's budget under fire prevention and protection, and whether the township should be responsible for paying those.Board solicitor Michael Greek suggested that there should be further discussions to determine what they would agree to do.Felty then suggested that the township should raise the fire tax to help with regular expenses because they don't raise as much with their fundraisers and other activities, and that the township is spending the fire company's general funds on legitimate expenses such as workers' compensation, but that he's concerned that the money that should be going to a future firetruck is being depleted.The fire company is looking to get reimbursed for 16 radios in the amount of about $15,000, and board supervisors Christine Troxell and Craig Wagner requested the names of all the firefighters who have possession of the radios, as well as information on the insurance covering the radios for the county and the local radios.A motion passed to pay one-third of the radio bill this year out of the general fire company CD, and one-third of the payments will be affected in the next couple of years.Felty asked the township to match a $500 donation from the fire company for a fire school for$1,000 a year for five years.The township is covering 63 percent of this year's expenses for the fire company out of a $30,000 total.Felty previously approached the board in May,when he asked it to raise their fire tax contribution to the fire company to 2 mills.He saidthe fire company faced increased expenses, such as workers' compensation, as well as a lack of support by township residents toward fire company events.Wagner saidthe fire tax is currently 0.75 mills, and that raising the fire tax to 2 mills would require a substantial increase from the township.Felty askedwhy only one-third of the fire company's expenses are being paid by the fire tax.Also on Saturday, Felty asked the board about an ordinance to deal with reimbursement for fire foam material, to which Greek said he will look into what's already in place for extraordinary expenses.There have been delayed processing for bills amounting to $17,000 that have not been paid, as well as controversy, with the insurance companies saying they paid part of those bills to other towns and that the statute of limitations for payment had passed.In other business, supervisors tabled the bids the township received for used equipment until next month's meeting pending review.It was also announced the Walker Township Safe Trick or Treat Night by the New England Fire Company is scheduled from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27.Donations of $5 per family, pumpkin decorating, and hot dogs will be available.