Tarrytown FD Problems

[SteveOFD 176]

Tarrytown fire feud ignites

Fire Chief at center of controversy among companies

Len Maniace-The Journal News

Tarrytown - A conflict inside the Tarrytown Volunteer Fire Department boiled over this week when two companies were blocked from responding to some fire calls after their leaders expressed a lack of confidence in the village fire chief.

Normal service was restored about 3 p.m. yesterday, following an emergency meeting of the Tarrytown Board of Trustees. The night before, Fire Chief James Lennox took responsibilities from Hope Hose and Riverside Hose companies.

"The two companies sent letters to the village saying they would not acknowledge me as commissioner," Lennox said yesterday. "I was not going to put them out there."

The order by Lennox was the latest salvo in an intensifying dispute between the fire chief and fire department leaders, who on Dec. 29 voted to suspend Lennox as chief. That suspension was annulled by the Board of Trustees on Jan 24. A legal opinion from Village Attorney Jeffrey Shumejda found that the Board of Fire Wardens had failed to make a verbatim transcript of the meeting when they suspended Lennox.

After Hope and Riverside were dropped from answering certain fire calls, another Tarrytown fire company was reassigned by Lennox to cover those emergencies. Washington Engine Company was to pick up calls for car fires on village streets and the Thruway as well as responding to the Glenville Fire District in Greenburgh.

"There was significant concern that the changes were not good ones and not based on good reasoning. We were having no problems prior to this," Mayor Drew Fixell said, adding that the board intended to further review the matter.

The reassignment meant that both of the village's ladder trucks would be outside Tarrytown if there was a call in the Glenville Fire District, said Village Administrator Stephen McCabe.

As it turned out, Washington Engine did not need to respond to any extra calls, said the presidents of Hope Hose and Riverside Hose.

Lennox said the conflict grew out of his attempts to upgrade the Tarrytown Fire Department after he became chief in April. He said many firefighters did not have the required annual medical exams and many lacked training.

Assistant Chief Robert Scogna said that department members regularly attended formal and informal training programs and that firefighters met various ability standards. When it came to medical exams, Scogna said Lennox gave conflicting messages, first saying completion of a questionaire was sufficient and then calling for physical exams later last year.

Lennox's critics also complained that the chief lives in Montrose, violating a requirement of his office that he live in Tarrytown. Fixell said the law only requires that Lennox live within the village at the time of his appointment. Lennox said he moved to Montrose after taking office.

Lennox, 43, is a New York City firefighter and has been a volunteer firefighter for 25 years.