Fire Station Closed...Mayor Surprised.

[NJFFSA16]

Mayor learns of fire station closing by reading about it

(Endicott-AP) -- The mayor of an upstate village opened up the
newspaper the other morning to learn that one of the village's two
fire stations had been closed.
Endicott Mayor Michael Colella says it was news to him.
Colella tells a Binghamton radio station (W-N-B-F) that neither
he nor the fire chief had authorized the closing.
The mayor says he read about it in the newspaper like everyone
else.
The surprise fire station shutdown happened after Colella sent
the chief a memo directing him to control mounting overtime costs.
But Colella insisted he didn't understand why the station was
closed. He's ordered it re-opened.
Fire department staffing has been a big political issue in the
cash-strapped village near Binghamton. Last spring, the mayor
proposed eliminating 20 of the 40 firefighting positions. The
village board chose to cut only four positions.

(Bob Joseph, WNBF, Binghamton)

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

There must be more to this....anyone in New York got the poop?

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

Oh wow, I'm surprised. A screwed up FD in upstate NY! Like wwe haven't heard that 50 times in the past two years.

[Lewiston2FF]

Now, now Goerge, Not all of us in Upstate NY are screwed up. Well, not totally anyway.
Sorry NJ, I dont have the poop yet, but I will see what I can do.

[hwoods]

What in the..........

More questions here than answers. I just looked up Endicott in my handy dandy atlas, and found that they have a population of just over 13,000. To protect them, they have 2 stations and 40 career members??? It don't take rocket science to see the problem here, not enough income to support the outgo. Compare Endicott NY to Glenn Dale Md. which now has about the same population, 1 station, 4 career FFs on Day work (0700-1700 weekdays) 8 Medics, (2 each shift working 24/72 for a total of 8) and 51 active Volunteers. Equipment is 2 Engines, 1 Tower ladder, 1 Heavy Rescue, 1 ALS and 1 BLS Ambulance, 1 Brush Truck, 3 Staff/Command cars. These units and people responded 9,137 times in 2002. My Point? We do a lot more than Endicott, and at a lot lower cost. Since labor is usually about 90% of the budget in Career departments it's not hard to see where the problem is. Although I absolutely do not have any problem with paying Firefighters I do question why Volunteers aren't part of ALL departments. The advantages are obvious. Stay Safe....

[1835Wayne]

Oh dear god, lets not start the whole vollie/career thing again!

While I see your point from a money stand point,I can not justify going backwards on staffing. There should be no argument that it is more efficient in terms of response times to have personell on station 24 hours a day.

[NJFFSA16]

From WICZ-TV News

Manpower reductions in the fire department was the main issue at Monday night's special meeting in Endicott. The meeting was to discuss Mayor Michael Collela's order to reduce the fire department's overtime. He plans to do this by reducing staff at the main fire station on Madison Ave. to at least four staff members instead of five. And also allowing the north side fire station to operate with as few as two. As a result of the mayor's order, the fire chief closed the north side fire station over the weekend because the chief could only muster one firefighter. Mayor Collela refused to comment for Fox 40 news before the meeting. Later, the mayor accused trustee Joan Hickey Pulse, who is running for mayor, of planting a question with one of our reporters. He accused her of politicising the meeting, by calling the media and packing the house with firefighters, and pointing out that Pulse voted for manpower reductions back in June. Pulse says the mayor pushed for the cuts without properly informing the trustees of the consequences. The meeting adjourned with no agreement on how to proceed.