BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP — For a small fire district like Richland, the purchase of a firetruck poses a significant cost.

As U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, put it Wednesday, “In terms of fire grants, the Richland Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 has hit the jackpot!”

LoBiondo announced a $257,212 federal grant that will cover most of the purchase of a much-needed new truck, thanks to a program from the Department of Homeland Security.

The Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, run by DHS’ Office for Domestic Preparedness and the U.S. Fire Administration, gives yearly grants to fire departments and emergency services. So far, $492.3 million has been awarded in 2007.

To date, $15.6 million has been shared by 105 units in New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District since the program began in 2001. LoBiondo has been holding seminars on the grant program during the past five years.

Both Richland No. 1’s fire chief, Anthony Monfredo, and Chuck Chiarello, mayor of Buena Vista Township, welcomed the news as a relief at a time when other expenses are weighing on the fire district’s mind.

“This couldn’t have come at a better time,” Monfredo wrote in a statement. “Now that we have a new firetruck, we can put all of our resources into repairing our fire station.”

Richland’s fire hall, which dates back to 1925, has recently been revealed to have structural problems, Chiarello said.

The disrepair has meant the hall will not be used as a polling station in upcoming elections.

Chiarello said Wednesday that the grant covers the ballpark cost of a new fire engine, but that acquiring such a vehicle tends to take as long as six months.

By then, in addition to roof and building repairs, “we’ll probably need a new bay for the truck,” Chiarello said.

Richland No. 1 last received federal funds totaling $8,550 in September 2001.

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP — “It’s a complete Catch-22 situation.”

So says Mayor Chuck Chiarello, who has watched the deadline for sending his township’s tax bills approach and overtake him.

He says missing the deadline of getting bills mailed by July 20 means tax bills will be paid late and will almost certainly force his township to borrow about $958,300 per month to cover its expenses.

He says this is all because of a problem he foresaw in June.

Chiarello has been waiting to hear from the Buena Regional School District, which recently announced that a budget error had thrown this year’s tax rate in both Buena Vista Township and Buena Borough into doubt.

The district’s original calculation was greeted with relief in April, as it appeared there was no need to raise property tax rates. But weeks later, on May 31, the district’s business administrator said a corrected calculation would raise rates by 12 cents.

Given that voters in the area had already approved the earlier rate at the polls, the school board, under outgoing Superintendent Diane DeGiacomo, voted to propose using interest on money earmarked to build a new middle school to cover about $730,000 of the gap.

The total shortfall was about $1.1 million, according to the board’s resolution. Funds from capital projects are being considered to cover the remainder.

But that proposal, which had to be approved first by the Atlantic County Office of Education and then the state Department of Education has been caught up in red tape.

Charles Muller, school business administrator for Atlantic and Cape May counties, told Chiarello on Wednesday that the proposal still has not been agreed to by Trenton.

Until that happens, Chiarello says, he and his Township Committee have their hands tied.

Taxes are normally paid during Aug. 1-10, after which defaulters must pay interest. But that is only the case if the bills had been mailed 21 days before Aug. 10, in this case, July 20.

That deadline has passed, and every day beyond that extends the time the township will have to wait before they receive the money. Taxpayers will have a grace period of 21 days from the date the bills are mailed to pay.

Buena Vista Township serves as collecting agency for all taxes paid by its residents to the county, the school district, fire district and for their own bills. Last year, they took in roughly $11.5 million, according to Ron Trebing, the township administrator.

So to cover those outgoing expenses, Chiarello says that as of Aug. 1, the township will expect to borrow over $958,300 each month.

“That will cost us interest,” Chiarello said. “Plus there are fees associated with borrowing money, for documents and so on.” He estimated that those costs could total between $2,000 and $4,000.

Chiarello said that he has discussed the situation continuously with new Superintendent Walt Whitaker, who took over from DeGiacomo in July.

But for now, he says, only the state can release him from the Catch-22 he finds himself in.

“We’re going to be spending money to cover this other mistake.”

BUENA BOROUGH — This small town’s municipal utilities authority has reached a compromise with the state’s Pinelands Commission on how to dispose of its treated sewage, a deal officials said will allow the borough’s development plans to finally take off.

Representatives from both the state and local agencies will meet at Borough Hall at 4 p.m. today to sign the document, called a memorandum of agreement.

Mayor Joseph Baruffi described today’s ceremonial signing as a landmark event in his town’s economic growth.

“It’ll be a great day for Buena Borough,” Baruffi said Thursday.” If we didn’t have this, (we) wouldn’t be able to move in the direction I want to move with growth. This is really major in regard to that.”

For the past several years, the Pinelands Commission — a state agency that tightly regulates development in the Pinelands National Reserve — has pressed the Buena Borough Municipal Utilities Authority, or BBMUA, to stop discharging its treated wastewater into the Deep Run, a small stream that feeds into the Great Egg Harbor River.

It placed restrictions on how much additional sewage could be treated at its Plymouth Road plant until a solution was hammered out, a move that Baruffi said held development from going forward.

After two unsuccessful attempts at a solution, the Pinelands Commission agreed earlier last month to a proposed “infiltration-percolation” system on a 72-acre parcel on Weymouth Road.

John Brunini, board chairman for the BBMUA, described the system as a series of lagoons that will allow the already treated wastewater to seep down through the soil — allowing for further, more natural filtration —and into the aquifer.

“The whole project should come in under $3 million,” Brunini said Thursday.

The land on which the BBMUA will build the new system is on Weymouth Road, located about a quarter-mile from the treatment plant. Referred to as the former Donato property, the land was purchased for approximately $350,000.

The sale, however, was tied up in bankruptcy court, and a judge recently allowed the transaction to go forward.

The current deal also involves nearby Buena Vista Township, which offered 232 acres of its land to be preserved from development as a Pinelands Commission requirement.

In exchange for that land, the township will be allowed to send 15,000 gallons of sewage per day to the treatment plant.

The BBMUA currently treats about 320,000 gallons per day at its facility, and the sewage from Buena Vista Township will bring its available daily capacity to 65,000 gallons.

Brunini said the new infiltration-percolation facility will enable his agency to expand its treatment capacity to 800,000 gallons per day in about four years.

“It’s the only way for the borough to go, but there are costs associated with that growth,” he added.

Brunini said the BBMUA hopes to offset those costs without raising rates by bringing in new customers to add to the facility’s revenue.