Concord Township is getting ready for its vote on the 2025 budget and council members are talking a tax increases for fire protection. The proposed overall millage is up from 0.514 total for 2024 to 0.5773 for 2025. That change is based on an increase in the proposed fire protection tax from this year’s 0.044 mils to 0.1683 mils for next year.
According to Concord’s Finance Director Bill Kaelin’s presentation during the Nov. 19 budget hearing, the increased millage for Concordville Fire & Protection Association will bring the township’s contribution to $527,530, an increase of more than $300,000 over last year, but still short of the $656,000 requested. In terms of real dollars, the increase amounts to an estimated $42 per year for the average property owner. The fire company is asking for almost $657,000 per year over the next several years.
“Concordville Fire is probably one of the best institutions in Delaware County if not all of southeastern Pennsylvania,” said Concord Council President Dominic Pileggi. “Unfortunately, it is no longer a volunteer fire company, it’s a paid fire department. With that, there are costs.”
Pileggi continued, saying people who fight the fires need to be paid and that the fire company made a presentation that “warranted their getting more money in order to pay to put the fires out and provide the ambulance services to the people of Concord Township.”
He also said he encourages the other municipalities served by Concordville Fire to treat it the same way.
The entire millage increase will go to the fire company, Pileggi added, and there is no increase for the general fund, the library, or anything else.
Pileggi also said he would like Kaelin and township Manager Amanda Serock to look for other sources of revenue — other than property taxes — for the general fund beginning with the 2026 budget.
The millage rate breakdown is 0.2060 for the general fund, .0640 for the Rachel Kohl Library, .061 for property owners in a hydrant district, 0.139 for open space, plus the 0.1683 for fire protection.
Expenditures for 2025 are estimated at $4,321,420, (an increase of 3.28 percent over 2024), with $4,116,100 in anticipated revenues. Serock said that the difference will be balanced with the township using its carry-over fund balance from 2024. She also said Concord is the second largest land mass and has the third lowest tax rate in Delaware County with the average township tax bill of $229 per year.
Looking ahead, there are several capital projects the township will be funding in 2025. Trail and park improvements will cost $1 million, another $1 million will go toward traffic safety improvements, $1 million for stormwater management, and another $1 million for road paving.
Council will vote on the final budget during the regular meeting on Dec. 3.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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