Gordon Heights saga continues

[IzzyEng4 427]

Reprinted from Firehouse.com and Newsday

BRANDON BAIN

Newsday

Residents of the Gordon Heights Fire District, angered over having to pay the highest fire district taxes on Long Island, last night presented the Brookhaven Town Board with a petition to dissolve the fire district.

The residents - some wearing green shirts to symbolize money - submitted a petition with signatures from more than 400 homes, well over the 51 percent of district households required to force the town board to hold hearings on the issue. Eventually, the town board might have to vote on the matter.

The signatures are being reviewed by the town.

Experts say no fire district in New York State ever has been dissolved. Some members of the mostly black fire district have brought up concerns that race could be a factor in the drive to shut it down.

But residents denied that. "It's all about money," said Rosalie Hansen, a Gordon Heights resident who collected signatures. "They're trying to make it a racial thing but it's only about the color green, and that's money."

Gordon Heights Fire District Commissioner Chesley Ruffin said dissolving the district could be damaging to fire safety in the area and wouldn't guarantee a reduction of taxes.

"Do I feel taxes in New York are high? Yes," he said. "But they are giving people false hopes."

Fire officials in Gordon Heights, a predominantly black community, have said the department's history as a black organization must be preserved.

Residents, who started petitioning to close the firehouse on Hawkins Avenue in April, pay on average $1,344 in fire taxes, more than three times what is paid by residents in neighboring Medford ($358) and Yaphank ($398). Fire department officials blamed high taxes on the lack of a commercial tax base in the district.

The small, volunteer district has a $1.48-million budget and protects roughly 800 homes. If the fire district is dissolved, several scenarios are possible.

A nearby district's fire commissioners could vote to absorb Gordon Heights, or the town board could take on Gordon Heights as a fire protection district like Moriches, collecting taxes and contracting with a nearby fire department to protect its homes.

"Many people are losing their homes, not to fires but to high taxes," said Melvin Robinson, a Gordon Heights resident since 1942 who pays $1,400 in fire taxes.

Also at last night's meeting, the Brookhaven Town Board passed its Energy Star resolution requiring that all new homes in the town be built under Energy Star standards for energy efficiency.

Brookhaven Town officials are expected to meet today with Babylon Town Supervisor Steve Bellone to discuss more energy-reducing initiatives in their respective towns.

[res6cue 67]

This story just gets better and better. Now they're trying to pull the race card??? If the entire community is primarily black, and they've gotten signatures from over 50% of the households, then someone tell me how it's possible that it's racially motivated! Unless it's another sad case of black on black crime. I can't wait for Sharpton to get involved in this one.

As I said when this story first broke, the tax rate there is outrageous by ANY measure. Taxes are high all over this area...in Rockland and Westchester and Nassau and etc etc etc, but not THAT high. Especially for such a small population and area. Our district is one of the largest in Rockland covering double digit square miles of around 10,000 households and around 30,000 residents (not even including all the commercial areas), we have to support over 100 members and a fleet of around 15 apparatus and other vehicles and run almost 1000 calls a year, all with a smaller budget than these guys!

That right there is the crux of the problem, they're trying to run some kind of full service dept that could probably cover an area 10x the size of what they do, which runs their budget through the roof. While I applaud them for doing the best they can to protect their population and keeping up with the times as far as equipment goes, unfortunately when you do the math it's clear that if your area or population is TOO small, there is going to be a huge imbalance between your source of funding and your required budget. I think maybe if they ran one truck out of a small firehouse they might be able to run a dept with a reasonable tax burden, but not the way they're currently setup.

While I hate to see any district, department or company fold, it's definitely time for them to do right by their citizens and realize that they're doing more harm than good at this point. They've long since passed the tipping point of providing a needed community service and simply sucking the taxpayers dry. They need to be proactive now and figure out a way to perhaps join another fire district so they broaden their tax base. I see no reason why they can't maintain some degree of company autonomy by doing this. They really have no choice, it seems it's come to the point that it's either they make some compromises or they'll be forced to shut down regardless.

Edited August 25, 2006 by res6cue

[IzzyEng4 427]

If you remember the earlier post from another thread and if you research the beginigns of this argument it was two fold. First is the high tax paid for the district and the second was a group of citizens who live on one side of a golf course that were closer to another district felt they would be better suited with that department. Most of these residents of this area were white. I don't remember who fired the racial charge first but I think it was one of the district commissioners not the fire department members or residents of the town.

[res6cue 67]

Well, I can only go by these quotes from the news article:

Some members of the mostly black fire district have brought up concerns that race could be a factor in the drive to shut it down.

Fire officials in Gordon Heights, a predominantly black community, have said the department's history as a black organization must be preserved.

I find the second quote particularly interesting. How is it that it's perfectly alright to make a comment like "the department's history as a black organization must be preserved", yet if the same were said about a different department, replacing the word "black" with "white", it would be akin to an atomic bomb going off? Or if a department were overwhelmingly white, you would hear cries of "we need to attract more minorities"? You've just got to love reverse racism and discrimination, you really do.

[Remember585 815]

If I read correctly, they claim no fire district in NY has ever been dissolved.

What about the Philipstown FD in Putnam County?

Wasn't that done by the State?

[EJS1810 7]

Nelsonville FD was a Village FD. They closed thier doors several years ago. The Village of Nelsonville nows pays the Village of Cold Spring for fire protection.

[res6cue 67]

Do you maybe mean the Nelsonville FD in Putnam? If so, they were dissolved in July 2001 but it was actually the dept itself that asked the village board to dissolve them because of lack of volunteers. I'm not aware of any fire district that was involved in the dissolution, but I'm pretty sure Cold Spring FD took over their response area and now serve the villages of Cold Spring and Nelsonville in the Philipstown/Cold Spring Fire District. In any case, I think when they say "no district has ever been dissolved in NYS", they mean by public referendum.

EDIT: EJS beat me to it

Edited August 27, 2006 by res6cue

[Remember585 815]

I don't know why I wrote Philipstown, but that's what I meant, Nelsonville.

Thanks for the clarification guys.