In almost 40 years of service as a volunteer firefighter, John O’Brien has just about seen it all.

Right now though, he’s seeing fellow volunteers at New Hamburg Fire Department with less and less time to contribute. He said it has a lot to do with folks needing more time to work and less time to volunteer.

He estimated volunteers at New Hamburg have decreased by almost 50% in the last 40 years. The lack of manpower can make a routine call more challenging.

“What we thought was something minor going to, turns into something serious," said O'Brien, the company president of the New Hamburg Volunteer Fire Department. "And then if we don’t have another truck coming right away, there is that delay where the firefighters that are first on the scene are working a lot harder not having the extra manpower.”

A new state law might make recruiting volunteers easier. Municipalities will be able to opt-in to offer property tax exemptions to volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers.

“It was another tool in our arsenal to use to recruit and retain our people and maybe even continue to live in New York state longer where taxes are rising, times are harder, jobs are tougher," O'Brien said.

Dutchess County will soon vote whether to adopt the law on a countywide level. County Legislature chair A. Gregg Pulver hopes it’ll have unanimous support, but said it’s important that school districts and towns also get on board.

“If the county does it alone, we’re talking about a $100 impact," Pulver said. "If the towns and the school districts go, you can get $400-$600 worth of impact in this.”

The property tax exemption can be as much as 10% if both the county and local municipalities opt in. O’Brien said that would go a long way to keeping the volunteers they have now, and hopefully add new ones.

“It needs to be applied properly so everybody can benefit from it and hopefully, it will recruit some people or keep our existing people here, from moving after retirement," he said.