Stewart Manor puts fire truck purchase up for vote

Residents of Stewart Manor, a village of 718 households, will go to the polls March 1 to decide whether to borrow $405,000 to buy a new fire truck - two years after the village spent $650,000 on another truck.

After controversy erupted among taxpayers last month over the proposed purchase, the village board last week decided to put the decision into voters' hands. Village officials now say they will buy the custom-built pumper truck only if a majority of voters approve.

The village of 0.2 square miles has two trucks - one 20 years old and in need of an estimated $59,000 in repairs. The other was acquired new in 2008.

How much is necessary?

Now some local taxpayers who balk at the prospect of adding to Stewart Manor's $3.4 million debt are questioning whether this village of mostly single-family homes needs such costly new trucks, or if it needs two trucks at all.

National insurance standards call for one engine within a 1.5-mile drive of any building it protects.

The village is in a section of western Nassau with so many firehouses that 13 different companies could potentially respond to fires on some streets within three minutes, a 2005 Newsday investigation found. Both the national recommended response time and the LI average response time for volunteer departments are under 10 minutes.

Fire Chief Daniel O'Keefe said having only one truck could endanger firefighters and residents if it malfunctioned during a call. In 2008, before the new engine was put into service, the department had just one truck and it broke down at the scene of a car fire, causing an eight- to 10-minute delay.

That truck's pump system had failed at another car fire in 2004, he said. "We lost two cars for this reason," he said, adding that it failed a pump test this month. "I can't tell you how many times it's not doing what it's supposed to be doing for our residents.

Officials defended having two trucks by pointing to nearby smaller communities: Bellerose has 378 households and two trucks, the newest one purchased in 1994, officials said.

And East Williston, with 833 households, bought its newest fire truck in 2005 for $210,000, officials there said.

The 10-year bond for the Stewart Manor truck would cost the average household $75 annually after the first year, when payments would be lower to cover only interest costs.

The average household already pays about $340 a year for debt service on capital improvements related to the fire department, according to estimates from budget figures and former village officials.

"We realized it could be a contentious issue so we decided to pursue a new truck only if a majority of the residents were in favor of it," said Deputy Mayor Peter Healy. He added the village was not required to put it to a vote.

The proposal comes two years after the village acquired a $647,000 fire engine with a pumper and ladder to replace a nearly 20-year-old pumper engine with mechanical troubles - one of two 1990 models the village bought in 2000 for a total of $300,000.

Repair old vs. buy new one

Rather than pour thousands into repairs for the aging pumper, O'Keefe said, the village should invest in a new truck, then resell it after 10 years to get a high return that could fund part of the next purchase. "We pay for what we get. We got two engines back in 1990 that cost us well into six figures with cost and repairs," he said. "Dollar for dollar we'll get a solid piece of apparatus that will last and we can get money back."

Former Mayor Joseph Troiano said the features of the truck purchased in 2008 exceeded the village's needs and that the latest proposal had prompted some residents to speak out about overspending on fire trucks. "The debt we'll incur with this purchase is something the public doesn't have an appetite for at this time," Troiano said. "If other communities aren't doing so, they should follow this example . . . and ask the appropriate questions."

John Walsh, 73, a resident for 42 years, exhorted the village to stagger fire truck purchases a decade apart so that taxpayers don't have to service debt on two engines at the same time, something O'Keefe seconded.

"The board I think has just made a flat-out mistake here," Walsh said.

Laura Mallay of South Hempstead, head of Residents for Efficient Special Districts, said volunteers should have all equipment necessary to ensure their safety. "But when you're buying trucks with all the bells and whistles . . . it's absolutely ridiculous during this crisis," she said. ". . . We've got great volunteers but the system's broken. There's too many trucks. There's too many firehouses."

The 1990 truck replaced two years ago was sold for $30,000-$35,000, O'Keefe said. Officials said they've not decided to sell the older truck if voters approve purchase of a new one.