Bolivar Allegany County Lawyers

State: Fire Company Treasurer Misappropriated Funds

If volunteer fire companies aren’t public bodies as the Chestertown Volunteer Fire Co. Inc. and their attorneys claim, then the state comptroller’s office wouldn’t be using taxpayer funds to conduct audits of their operations.

The Chestertown fire company might be next in line to have both its general and social funds audited by the state.  The state comptroller’s audited the Chestertown Fire District earlier this year but the audit report has yet to be released.

The fire department is located in the Village of Bolivar. Established in 1932, the department has one fire station and approximately 55 volunteer members who provide fire protection services to the village and Town of Bolivar, as well as a portion of the Town of Genesee.

The department is governed by a five-member board of directors which is responsible for overseeing the department’s general and financial affairs. However, board decisions may be overruled by a majority vote of the department’s membership.

Department revenues and expenditures for the 2010 calendar year were approximately $48,000 and $73,000, respectively. The department’s primary sources of revenues are fundraising activities, grants, and foreign fire insurance premiums.

The state audit was conducted for the period of January 2009 to April 15, 2011.

According to department bylaws, the treasurer is the chief fiscal officer whose duties include receiving, depositing and disbursing funds and maintaining financial records. The fire company treasurer also is required to file an annual report of the department’s revenues and expenditures of foreign fire insurance premiums with the state comptroller’s office.

The department accounts for its financial activities in the general, reserve and social funds. The general and reserve funds are used to account for the department’s general operations and equipment needs. These funds are primarily financed with proceeds from fundraisers and grants.

The social fund is used for the general benefit of the members and is funded by foreign fire insurance premiums and donations.

The comptroller’s office previously audited and released a report on the Bolivar Joint Fire District in July 2010. The fire district is a separate entity from the department. As in Chestertown, the department’s volunteer firefi ghters provide fire protection services to the fire district.

During the state’s fieldwork for the Bolivar fire district audit, which was conducted in early 2010, certain department financial records were reviewed and auditors found a lack of controls with respect to the department’s debit card.

Outside Counsel

We dropped CLA off at camp, then continued on to Elmira to visit with T and S and their daughters, S and R. On the way back we stopped to investigate an accident scene for A. This is an old trolleycar electrical station located in Bolivar, New York. A truck took out that wall, but that's not the interesting part-- the interesting part is that there was a trolley car line in Bolivar, New York. It is as remote and empty a little town as you are going to find in New York State-- why was there a trolley line? "In 1880 street transportation came to Olean, a year later than it had arrived at it’s neighboring city south, Bradford, PA. The horsecar line connected the downtown business district with the Erie Railroad Depot and was only 7,750 feet long. It was built to 3’6” gauge and operated until 1891 when a line was started on West State Street using standard gauge to prepare in advance for electric railway and connected Olean with Allegany. Permission to cross the Erie RR tracks was refused and the track ended opposite St. Bonaventure University. In 1893 the track was laid sufficiently to allow the first electric car to run and permission finally received to cross the Erie tracks and the service extended in 1894 to Allegany. Three years later, in 1897 an inaugural run was made into Portville. In 1901 the railway proposed to extend this line to Bolivar in Allegany County. In 1902 construction started from Portville to Ceres and on to Bolivar. These extensions made it necessary to gain more electric power than the Olean plant could produce and a second electric generating station was built near Ceres. At this time, steam was furnished by a bank of boilers fired by natural gas. The Ceres plant was located adjacent to a 600 acre natural gas field owned by the railway. By 1908 a new station was built at the Ceres site to use the natural gas supply derived from the company’s wells and piped to the site. Power from this plant supplied direct current for the Bolivar & Shinglehouse branches. It is said that in 1904, service between Olean & Ceres was 40 minutes and 80 minutes to Bolivar from Olean.

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