Business owners heated over fire prevention fee BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer HAZLET HAZLET - An ordinance amending the township fire prevention code has raised the ire of some business owners. The controversial measure, passed by the Township Committee on Oct. 2, renewed a fire prevention fee based on the square footages of businesses. Under the ordinance, if a business is 500 to 2,500 square feet, its owner will pay $50 plus an additional $2.50 as part of the fee. According to local business owner Tom Kelly, since the code was passed in 1993, store owners under 500 square feet, who were supposed to be exempt, were still being taxed. "The amendment basically set the fee to reflect the tax on the higher, illegal amount that we are being charged," Kelly said. "They seem to set their figures at their discretion. In some cases it seemed like they were just rounding up." Kelly wanted the money taken from the owners of businesses under 500 square feet to be returned to the owners. Fire companies have collected over $500,000 from the fees, according to Kelly, well above what they should have made. The money is used to fund fire prevention classes for students in schools, hospitalization fees for injured firefighters and other needs of the fire department. Hazlet fire official John Beslanovitz said that officially renewing the ordinance is something he has been supported for a few years, and he is glad that the committee did that. "It's something I feel is important to fire prevention," Beslanovitz said. "Most towns have to just deal with the fire companies. In Hazlet we have to go through the Township Committee." John Conti, president of the Hazlet Business Owners Association, spoke out at the Oct. 2 meeting, where the ordinance was unanimously approved. "We would like to ask the committee to wait for more information before approving of this," Conti said at the meeting. "Postpone this until a further time so that we can know if this makes sense to pass." Kelly and Conti both agreed that they were essentially being taxed twice on fire prevention, as they are already being taxed when they are initially inspected for meeting fire regulations. The ordinance will have to wait 45 days until it becomes effective. "We've only managed to have one meeting with fire officials about this," Kelly said. "We just wanted them to wait until they knew all of the information. Now it's up to the appeals process."