To the Philadelphia spouter that thinks a paid department is a good investment: Ocean City spent $9,090,044 on fire protection expenses, including salaries and wages in 2009. Ocean View spent $315,000 for fire protection in 2009. That means that the department could run for 29 years on one year of Ocean City's budget. That seems like a pretty good deal. I'm sure the firefighters wouldn't complain if they offered a paid job though.