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The township commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to adopt a special fire tax of 0.43 mills, which will begin being assessed in 2010.
The tax will require the owner of a home in Manheim Township assessed at $100,000 to pay $43 per year.
"I think it's vital we keep this (tax) for as long as I'm a resident of this township," Commissioner Michael Flanagan said.
The tax is expected to generate about $1.2 million annually to be divided among the township's three volunteer fire companies — Eden, Neffsville and Southern Manheim Township.
Township commissioners have complained for years that relatively few residents and businesses donate money to support the local fire companies, whose costs for training, equipment and vehicles have escalated.
The fire tax was proposed in July after a year-plus study of township fire service needs.
Commissioner Carol Simpson has said Manheim Township would have to establish a paid fire department if the fire tax were not adopted.
Jim Martin, Manheim Township's former longtime manager who was elected to a commissioner's seat by voters last week, urged the board Monday not to adopt what he called an "entitlement tax."
"I think it's going to start the volunteer fire departments arguing and fighting among themselves" over the money, Martin said.
• In other business Monday, Dawn Stratchko, the township's director of finance, presented the proposed 2010 budget.
The $17.25 million spending plan requires no hike in the township's 2009 tax rate of 1.9 mills, although the new fire tax of 0.43 mills will be assessed next year.
The commissioners must vote on the budget before the end of the year.
Also Monday, the board voted 3-1 to solicit bids to build a 2,200-foot-long, asphalt walking path stretching from Delp Road to Valley Road through Landis Woods Park.
Commissioner Rick Casselbury cast the lone dissenting vote. Commissioner Nancy Keebler was absent from the meeting.
The commissioners must have the project under contract for construction by the end of the year to secure nearly $600,000 in federal grant money for it.
The path would be 10 feet wide and have a parking lot capable of holding 15 to 20 vehicles as a trailhead off Valley Road.
In opposing the trail project, Casselbury said he believes the proposed parking lot is too big, and he doesn't think the path should be paved because the purpose of Landis Woods is to provide residents with a natural, undeveloped area for recreation.
Former township commissioners William Ebel and Roy Baldwin told the board the trail has been planned for more than a decade and is a key part of a townshipwide network of nonmotorized walking paths.
