Readers Write: Opposition to a fully paid Fire Dept. in Manhasset-Lakeville Fire District.

The Island Now

This letter expresses my opposition to a paid Fire Department for Manhasset-Lakeville Fire District.

As a 62-year member, former chief and former advanced emergency medical Technician, I have experienced a fair amount of Mr. Brian Kenny’s largely negative posture toward policies which endeavor to maintain and augment the efficacy of the volunteer fire service (note that there are 71 excellent volunteer Fire Departments in Nassau and 110 in Suffolk)

At present there is superlative coverage given to our residents and businesses in terms of cost to taxpayers. As evidence, manpower in both counties is willingly provided by the most dedicated persons and quantity and quality of emergency apparatus is second to none.

Factually, Mr. Kenny has indeed proposed a paid fire service before. The last time it was his proposal to reduce the number of stations and apparatus and have the department populated with his employees as needed.

At that time said employees were largely those in his catering business. It appeared that this posture was designed to foster a greater personal influence and power.

With the recent proposal, coverage to the community at large would require substantially increased manpower costs and diminished apparatus. Excellent current mutual aid procedures would have to be renegotiated and bargain issues would come to the fore.

Today’s manpower costs are minimal compared to full career Departments. Those are for minimal maintenance and occasional daytime augment.

The suburbs’ hazard risks are nowhere near those of a huge city and do not require transition to a fully paid organization.

The cost to the taxpayer would require scaling back coverage to an acceptable minimum. Today’s volunteers are among the most dedicated people on earth and to eliminate their effectively no-cost labor would be a profound insult to them and a severe detriment to those they serve.

There are no fully paid Fire Departments on Long Island to date. This bears truth to the saying “If it ain”t broke……Don’t fix it!

Herman P. Wiegand
Manhasset

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