God bess the firemen but why do we have 3 companys in this small town. I could see it 40 years ago when most of the town was undeveloped with dirt roads but come on I can now drive from one end of town to the other in 15 minutes. $8000 a year in propery taxes is putting us in the poor house while they all ride around with shinny new trucks. If I only thought of getting on the town payroll 30 years ago I could have retired by now.

I totally agree, Hopatcong does not need 3 fire stations - Jefferson which is huge doesn't even have this many - The town needs to cut one of these stations and clean up the rescue squad building

Just to clear things up if it takes 15 minutes for you to get in your personal vehicle then think how long it takes for a fireman to get the alert, go to the firehouse, get in the engine or trucks requested, respond to the scene. Although there are three firehouses did you know that because of the lack of hydrants and easily accessible places to draw water from the Northwood section of town and all areas along Sparta Stanhope have the worst insurance rating possible. This is due to the lack of viable water supply's having apparatus closely placed allows us to make up for that by having water on wheels and strategic placement of that. The Annual operating budget of the equipment, gear, building maintenance, and apparatus maintenance costs each resident $7.31 a year to protect the residents 24 hours a day seven days a year. This is nothing. If we eliminate one firehouse and remove one third of the buildings maintenance budget that cuts out $.42 dollars a year per resident. Not really a significant savings. If the town where to close one, they would likely not sell the building and merely utilize it for another purpose so there would be no savings and likely since the building would need to be retrofit for the new purpose their would be added costs. The Volunteer Fire Department is the only department in municipal government which consistently saves money by not taking any annual salaries. Over 3 million dollars a year saved by volunteers. HFD Chief1

I agree with mike every second counts when it comes to saving a life.

There was no good reason to clear the front lawn of town hall for this. No offense but, we have a lot more in this town that needs doing than to waste time, money, and manpower to cut down trees that were healthy, for this. Why not at the park or by one of the fire houses? Another waste of time, money, and manpower, by Hopatcong.

Just to add some more info to the article and discussion. Two major sources of funds for this area were donated by the Hudson Farm Farm Foundation and the Hopatcong Fire Department. The reason that location was selected is as you know during the town parades, the FD makes up a large part of the parades for this town and participates in town events. We are also one of the continual hosts of the Sussex County Fireman's Parade and it was thought that it should be in a location that many at town events will go by. Most importantly the beams needed to be in an area that would minimize the chances of vandalism and litter occuring near or on them. Unlike other monuments in town to those who have served, the beams literally have over 2,000 lives permantely infused within them so their security is essential. No better place to secure something that by our local Police Department.