Roger Hannigan Gilson is reporting in the Register-Star Hudson voters will decide next week if a financial retirement program should be created for the city's volunteer firefighters. If approved, Proposition 2 will establish the Length of Service Awards Program for the Hudson Fire Department. Under the program each active fireman in good standing would receive a service award of $700 every year. Those funds would then be invested on behalf of the volunteer by the Glens Falls National Bank and Trust Company. A firefighter would be required to serve for at least five years and reach the age of 62 before cashing out. The Hudson Fire Department hopes the initiative will serve as a useful recruitment and retention tool made necessary by the current climate of decreasing volunteerism. Hudson Fire Commissioner Timothy Hutchings said there are multiple reasons for the declining number of city firemen. "It’s due to training requirements as well as outside influences like job commitments, the need to travel for employments — there’s a lot of factors," he said. If instituted, the program would be retroactive to 2012, making the estimated cost to the city nearly $93,000 for the first five years, and then decrease to a little more than $48,000. For owners of property assessed at $100,000, the program is expected to increase their tax bill by $24.15 per year, for the first five years, and $12.50, per year thereafter. Similar programs exist for the Taghkanic, Copake and Greenport fire departments, Hutchings said. Read the full story in the Register-Star.