No Refund for Ambulance Squad

The Central Bucks Ambulance and Rescue Unit will not be getting its money back.

Doylestown Council members voted 6 - 2 Monday night against returning part of the squad's zoning application fee from a failed bid to build a wind turbine at its East Street headquarters.

Reached after the meeting, ambulance squad Chief Chuck Pressler said he was not surprised.

"That's about what we expected, but I think it would have been irresponsible of us to not at least ask for the money back," Pressler said. "Their decision is final, and we can accept that."

Though sympathetic to the squad's plight, the council members who opposed the refund said it could open the door for other applicants to try to demand their fees back if their application is not approved.

"I feel no differently about it than about any other applicant," said council member Joan Doyle. "When you apply for a variance, you take your chances before the zoning hearing board."

"My concern is that we set a bad precedent by returning the fee," echoed council member Noni West.

Council president Det Ansinn agreed, pointing out that entities including Bucks County government, the Central Bucks School District and nearly every other applicant must pay the fees, as well. And no outcome is ever guaranteed, he said.

"We have many projects that don't proceed, even though these fees are paid," Ansinn said, adding, "It's not a feel-good thing; they've done this, they've spent this money, budgets are tight. But it's a reminder of the diligence that folks should go through."

Dennis McCauley, who made the motion to return half of the squad's $1,500 application fee, or $750, argued that the "unique" circumstances surrounding the issue justified the refund.

The ambulance squad wanted to install a wind turbine to cut electricity costs. It needed a zoning waiver from the borough to allow the project to go through. It also needed permission from the borough council to proceed with the project, because the borough owns the land on which the squad's headquarters sit.

After neighbors vocally opposed the project, Doylestown Council unanimously denied permission for the project - even though the borough's own zoning hearing board had granted permission for the zoning waiver.

"This application was unusually difficult for a number of reasons," McCauley said. "It's clear that the Central Bucks Ambulance Squad, somehow, was acting on the assumption..that the borough...was in favor" of the project.

The vote was 2 - 6; voting in favor of returning the $750 were McCauley and David Laustsen, while Ansinn, Doyle, West and Don Berk, Susan Madian and William Stevens voted against.

Council members were careful to stress that they support the squad and its mission in other ways, including enacting a new half-mil tax this year that will raise $53,000 for the squad - about $3,000 more than the borough had been giving to the group.

Plus, Madian pointed out that while the squad's application fee was $1,500, the hearing itself cost the borough more than $4,000 for the legal fees and transcription costs.

As for the ambulance squad, Pressler said he is waiting to hear back from the state as to whether the nearly $25,000 grant the squad got for the wind turbine can be used toward a solar energy project instead.

"I'm just trying to do what's right," he said. "Roadblocks are roadblocks; we'll get through them."