The contract for the Vigilant Fire Department was unanimously adopted by the Village of Thomaston Board of Trustees on Thursday night.
This year’s $43,595 contract is a 6.6 percent increase from last year’s $40,878 contract, according to a village representative.
David Weiss, chairman of Vigilant’s board of trustees, attended Thursday’s meeting and said the increase was strictly based on the salary of one new full-time paramedic and several part-time ones.
“We had to bring on another full-time medic, so the increase is totally due to payroll,” he said.
Weiss said the need for the extra hires is due to an increase in ambulance calls.
The contract was approved with a modification made by the Thomaston trustees that requires Vigilant to provide an “endorsement” of the increased funds. In the past, a certificate has been typically required, Thomaston Mayor Steven Weinberg said, but was not actual proof, whereas an endorsement is.
The contract is presented each year to the municipalities that the department serves. Vigilant provides fire protection to the villages of Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Kensington and Kings Point along with parts of Great Neck Plaza and Thomaston.
Emergency services are provided to Thomaston residents who are north of the Long Island Rail Road.
The Village of Great Neck Plaza approved the fire department’s contract in February. During the meeting, Great Neck Estates Mayor William Warner informed the Plaza trustees that he was not given an outline of the reasons for an increased contract, and a hearing in his village did not occur at that point.
“There was never a meeting between the Vigilant board and the affected villages to discuss this contract,” Warner said. “I find it to not be representative, and Vigilant took a step they didn’t have to take and shouldn’t have taken without consulting with the taxpayers who pay the bill.”
Weiss, who has served on the board for more than 20 years, touted the fire department’s recent fiscal practices.
“Since 2015, the Vigilant budget has only increased by a total of 5 percent,” Weiss said. “That’s unheard of.”
Warner and Weiss separately acknowledged that communication between the fire department and the villages it has served has decreased in the past few years. The two could not pinpoint a specific reason for a lack of dialogue. Weiss said it needs to be corrected.
“There’s definitely been a breakdown in communication over the past few years,” Weiss said. “I’m not really sure how it got to this point, but it is certainly something that needs to be addressed on both ends going forward.”
Weiss said a meeting to discuss the budget with the affected villages was scheduled to take place in November, but the meeting was canceled and was not rescheduled.
Weinberg offered his support to the fire department going forward, if Weiss or other representatives were not receiving an adequate response from other village officials.
Great Neck Estates’ public hearing on the Vigilant contract is scheduled for Monday, April 13.
