Village Considers Eliminating Fire Dispatcher

A fire dispatcher position in Farmingdale may be eliminated as a way for the to keep taxes down in future years.

The saved salary will be used towards bond repayments on the village purchased this year. Village of Farmingdale Mayor George Starkie proposed this elimination three years ago when his term started, but public hearings on the proposal just began last month.

“While it is a great service we provide, it’s a redundancy of services and in this economic time we just can’t afford that,” Starkie said

is not cut residents may face tax increases of up to four percent in order for the village to make payments on the $1.5 million truck bill. To help with the expense, the fire department underspent its budget the past few years, sold the old trucks and chose to replace three trucks with two. Through these cost-saving measures, the department can fund at least a year's worth of payments.

The village has provided this service since the 1930's and currently employs three full-time fire dispatchers, which gives residents the ability to call the fire department directly during emergencies instead of 911. Calls to 911 are routed to the Nassau County Fire Communication Center line then to the fire department.

According to 2010 fire department records, roughly 50 percent of calls went to the village fire dispatcher, while the other half went through 911.

In Nassau County, 43 departments use the Nassau County Fire Communication Center exclusively, while 28 employ their own dispatchers, said center Supervisor Timothy Placilla.

The center, known as FireCom, gets 60,000 calls each year and staffs 25 dispatchers. It was scheduled to move to a new Westbury facility in early 2011, but radio issues have kept the center in its Mineola location. 

Farmingdale Fire Chief Jack Scherer cited FireCom’s current tech issues and other problems as reasons why he is against this proposal.

“We’ve had issues with them in the past sending us to the wrong addresses because they are not familiar with the area,” Chief Scherer said. “Farmingdale has a Grant St. and Grant Ave., four Maple Streets., a Clinton St. and Clinton Ave. The other problem is that we are on the border of Nassau and Suffolk counties so there are some dead spots for FireCom."

The chief said the fire department receives around 1,200 calls per year and the average response time is seven to eight minutes. The department does not differentiate response time between the calls that come directly to the dispatcher and the others that come through 911, but he said that the response time to calls made directly to the firehouse is “naturally much faster."

Nearby fire departments East Farmingdale, Massapequa and Wantagh all use their own dispatchers.

“We feel that having personnel who are familiar with our area allows us to provide the best, most efficient service to the community, especially with the wide variation of locations that we protect,” said Joseph Scura, district administrator for the East Farmingdale Fire Department.

Calls to the South Farmingdale Fire Department, who uses FireCom, were not returned.

The mayor said that the Board of Trustees can vote on this at any upcoming board meeting and welcomes input from residents.

"It puts residents and firefighters at risk," Chief Scherer said. "We are not in favor. We are aware of the needs of the village and we're here to serve the village."