IT LOOKS LIKE HE MOONLIGHTS FOR THE NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS. For five years now the Jersey Scrooge has been trying to shut down the Califon Firemen’s Carnival because they don’t have fire suppression systems and rated hoods for their outdoors cooking booths.
The carnival has been an annual fund-raising event for 70 years and generates about $25,000 for the little VFD in Hunterdon County. The total annual budget for the Califon volunteers is about $120,000, all of which is raised by fund-raising events. The summer carnival is an annual institution in the county.
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Star-Ledger photo
But the small-minded, petty patronage, make-work dullards at this useless state agency insist on flexing their regulatory powers and want the fire department to spend upwards of $75,000 for automatic suppression systems, rated hoods with ducts and filters for their tiny outdoors cooking shacks.
Never mind that the open stands are manned by firefighters who have extinguishers on hand and fire engines always on standby at the carnival grounds. The VFD has been continuing operating the carnival for the past five years by appealing the rulings through the court system. But the tyrant-in-charge of the state agency is determined to shut them down.
Meanwhile, the tax-strangled citizens of New Jersey might well be wondering why they have a Department of Community Affairs in the first place.
Today’s Star-Ledger has the full story HERE.
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Hickory Grove photo
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