Larchmont Tradition of Vol. FF's May Be Waning

[Guest EM2FD]

Larchmont tradition of volunteer firefighting may be waning

By PHIL REISMAN

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: May 24, 2007)

And at the rear, aloof and splendid,

Lugging the lanterns of their pride,

O the red firemen, well attended

By boys on bicycles who ride

With envious reverence at their side!

- from "Small-Town Parade," by Larchmont poet Phyllis McGinley.

That line about Memorial Day was composed more than a half-century ago, a simpler time when practically the whole village lined the streets to wave flags and applaud the "red firemen" and others in uniform who marched in the annual parade. Before and since, Larchmont's volunteer firefighters could always be counted on to participate.

Until now.

Well attended? It's anybody's guess how many volunteers, if any, will assemble for tonight's parade.

"There's no way I can stomach it," said Angelo Mancino, a fire captain and one of the department's most dedicated members. He is hardly alone in that sentiment.

According to an unofficial count, 22 out 28 active volunteers have tendered their resignations in the wake of last week's unanimous decision by the mayor and village board to appoint a full-time, professional fire chief to run the entire Fire Department, which includes the volunteer contingent as well as 15 paid firefighters.

This effectively wrests control from the volunteers, who have answered to their own elected chief for more than 100 years, ever since the days of barn fires and the arrival of Mayhew W. Bronson, a businessman who founded the department with the help of his wealthy pals. By 1902, there were 175 volunteers, a fact noted at the time in a feature story in The New York Times that described Chief Bronson and his cohorts as having been "smitten by the firefighting fever."

Today, the volunteers describe themselves as demoralized, discouraged and fed up. They say a proud institution has been broken impetuously and for political reasons.

"It's more than just a department of the village, it's a culture," said Jim Sweeney, a former chief who fought his first fire 30 years ago. "You know, you're destroying a culture here. You're seeing this thing dissolve before your very eyes."

Ned Benton, a 10-year veteran, said in an e-mail message, "I keep thinking that I'll wake up and realize that all this was a bad dream."

Benton said he believed that Larchmont's tradition of volunteer firefighting will end in mid-June when most of the resignations take effect.

Other village and town fire departments in the area have a combination of volunteers and professionals, but none of them have paid chiefs, Sweeney said. Like Benton, he predicted that volunteers will disappear over time, a certainty that the village's elected officials haven't grasped.

"It's just the way it is," he said.

Mayor Liz Noyer Feld, a Republican who ran as an independent to defeat GOP incumbent Ken Bialo in 2006, said the move to hire Rich Heine as the village's first professional fire chief at an annual salary of $115,000 was done to bring management accountability to the department. She said the current structure, which includes the unionized, career firefighters, volunteers, a fire council and volunteer fire chief, was a "four-headed monster" that needed streamlining. (The multiheaded monster metaphor was first used last week by a lawyer for the volunteers who are suing the village over the matter.)

The mayor said a long-standing friction between the paid men and the volunteers had reached an "unhealthy level" and that the new chain of command would change that. The mayor said she didn't believe the number of resignations was as high as 22, acknowledging only that seven men resigned at a public meeting.

"Obviously, we hope they reconsider," she said. "But if they can't find a way to work with the new structure, then we respect that."

In any event, the mayor said that the village's fire protection needs would be met with the deployment of the remaining volunteers, the paid men and mutual aid.

"I'm certain that we're covered," she said.

Feld also disputed a rumor that she pushed the fire chief initiative as a political payoff to the fire union for backing her in the election.

"It's not about that," she said. "It's never been about that."

She said the union wasn't so much behind her as they were against her opponent. Bialo, she said, had a "terrible working relationship" with the union. Now she has a similar relationship with the volunteers, who think her policy has put the public's safety at risk.

The mayor said no one likes change, but in a small village where volunteerism has always been a hallmark, this has a Draconian smell about it. With one stroke of the pen, the volunteers have been diminished. They are subordinates now, practically auxiliaries, who are privy to information only on a corporate need-to-know basis.

That is difficult to accept. In an age when everyone is complaining about taxes, this is one free service that's taking it on the chin.

It remains to be seen how it will eventually play out. But the new era starts tonight with the Memorial Day parade.

Who will march? No one knows for sure. Some firefighters may simply choose to honor the war dead by attending a memorial service Monday.

Angelo Mancino summed it up.

"It's really, really hard to walk away," he said.