Incumbent Candidate for Fire Commissioner
Vision for the Greenfield Fire District
This section describes my vision for the future of this district - what I want to focus on should I have the honor of being re-elected this December for my secont term as Commissioner. This section touches on only a few of the many items that I want to focus on as commissioner of this district (in no particular order).
If you have any comments/concerns about the future of the district, send me an email - I welcome any opportunity to discuss fire district topics.
Municipal Purchasing Cooperation
New York State law allows fire districts to partner with other municipalities whether its villages, towns, counties or other fire districts to pool monetary resources when purchasing.
As individual residents, we understand this concept as we use it everyday - there are many people who shop at BJ's Wholesale Club. By buying in larger quantities, we can lower the unit cost of a particular product. This idea is no stranger to government, and municipalities do this often.
Fire districts however do this all to infrequent. My plan is to increase the cooperation between fire districts when purchasing - lowering the overall cost to the fire district. I have started some of this work as I have been brainstorming opportunities with the Association of Fire Districts of the Capital Area.
The Association of Fire Districts of the Capital Area is essentially a subset of the Association of Fire Districts of the State of New York, whose purpose is to help train and educate fire districts located in the Capital District. This organization could be just the platform to help organize this type of purchasing. I think one of the best ways to achieve this level of cooperation would be through some sort of online application.
I do not know if this has been tried in the past, or what is currently on the market, but this is an idea that is VERY much worth looking into.
Facility Investment and Focus
In my opinion, the GFD facilities are another (unfortunately huge) example of poor business decisions made in the past, affecting us at present day.
The firehouses themselves were designed to small, cheaply, and in some cases - built incorrectly. Our taxpayers must now incur significant cost in order to correct these mistakes.
For example, the GFD does not have a meeting hall big enough to accomodate all the firefighters in this district, a mistake that occured well before my time on the Board of Fire Commissioners. In an era of increasing annual certifications and training mandates for our firefighters - it seems almost unthinkable that we do not have a facility that allows us to train our volunteers.
I want to focus on the facilities of the fire district, helping to correct these problems - at the least expense possible, and definitively address these issues once and for all. The fact that we as taxpayers have to address mistakes made 20 years ago is not acceptable - and I do not want to continue that cycle.
While correcting these problems will be costly, we can ease our burden by correcting these problems one and for all - rather than band-aiding problems for others to fix.
Apparatus Maintenance Overhaul
The annual repair and maintenance costs of the GFD apparatus fleet have spiraled upwards - particularly over the past few years.
I believe this to be due to a few things: (1) that there still isn't a definitive maintenance program for the GFD apparatus fleet, and (2) the lack of annual pump and hose testing. In 2009, the GFD finally started pump and hose testing, and the costs were more than projected to fix the variety of issues infecting the district fleet to pass the pump testing.
The GFD needs a more reasonable maintenance program to both streamline the repair process, and minimize the cost to the taxpayer.
New Resident Pamphlet
One of the things that I have worked on over the course of my first term as Commissioner has been to educate our residents on what our fire district does for them.
To that end, I believe a great way to help educate the public is to provide our residents with a pamphlet about the fire district as they move into our great district. I know that the Town of Wilton provides new home owners with a pamphlet - and there's no reason we can't "piggy back" and insert our own information about the GFD.
ISO Rating
An ISO rating is one factor that determines your insurance premium on your home insurance. The iso rating approximates how well your property is protected firematically. That is, the lower the number, the better the fire protection in your community. Currently the district's ISO rating is 4/9.
An iso rating takes many things into consideration: public-awareness programs, staffing levels and performance evaluations. I'm confident that the district can score rather nicely on most of the qualifications that ISO considers.
For example, the GFD recently took possession of a new aerial truck (EL-293), a new hydrant water system has been installed in the Town of Wilton portion of the GFD, and the recently installed Saratoga County Water system now add a variety of hydrants to the GFD. All of these things affect the ISO rating, and I hope will positively affect our qualification.
As the iso website states, the evaluation process is free to the district - so even though it is a lengthy process, there really isn't a reason not to pursue it.
In speaking with some of the people from Rock City Falls Fire Department - who recently under went an ISO reevaluation, its possible to save tax payers of this district 10% on their insurance - if you get your ISO rating increased. So at the very least, this should be something that should be pursued.
Bridging the Communication Gap between Tax Payers, Firefighters, and the Board
I want to continue the open government initiatives I championed in my first term as Commissioner - namely the first fire district newsletter and the first fire district website.
The GFD continues to receive positive and constructive feedback regarding the website and newsletter, and I want to continue to modify both to make them better fitted towards the requests of our community.
One idea, for example, is to make the various fire district documents available for download on greenfieldfd.org, more easily accessible.
One such idea is to provide a link on the front page - directly linking the documents for download. This is something that I will change if re-elected.