Dear Editor,
This is an open letter to the Apalachin Fire District taxpayers. As of Feb. 15, operations have resumed out of our new Station 1. Thank you all for your support over the past year keeping an extra eye on the equipment and apparatus stored outside of our satellite stations and with your patience, as volunteer response time was extended a couple minutes with the longer drives.
Fortunately, we had no damage to our equipment during the construction period and response delays were an average of two minutes over the past 11 months of construction.
With the new station complete, all of our apparatus is now able to be stored indoors. This has the immediate benefit of accelerating response times when volunteers arrive at the station and won’t have to scrape snow off the apparatus.
The additional space can be felt immediately when entering the new station as firefighters can walk around the entire vehicle without squeezing between a garage door and a bumper.
This station would not have been possible without the support of our community, our volunteer firefighters, and the leadership of a few members that went above and beyond their already heroic contributions.
Specifically, I’d like to publicly recognize Fire Chief Mike George, who in addition to leading day-to-day operations, regulatory requirements and administrative tasks, took on the role of project manager representing the District. With his engineering and managerial experience, our community benefited tremendously from his leadership and legitimately saved the District at least $50,000 that would normally have been invested in a ‘Clerk of the Works’ on a project of this scale.
I’d also like to recognize members of the Building Committee: EMS Chief Ray Standish, 1st Assistant Chief Andy Foley and Commissioner Mary Ann Cascarino. These individuals literally put in hundreds of hours of additional volunteer time during preparation, planning, and execution phases of this project. Their keen eye and diligence led to more than 1,000 corrections and updates prior to the building plans being presented to the contractors for bids.
The result of their effort can be measured by the lack of change orders needed during construction. Overall, approximately ten change orders were executed across all contractors, mostly due to code-compliance, and the contingency fees were approximately 3 percent of the total construction budget. This is extraordinary where ‘success’ is often defined as ‘change-orders totaling less than 10 percent is outstanding’. This effort represents potential savings of $200,000 or more!
Finally, I’d like to recognize the Fire District Treasurer Fred Meyn who retired on Feb. 28, but who made an enormous impact by protecting the Fire District assets, financial controls, and hundreds of hours of clerical work that is easy for most to overlook.
Because of the efforts of the Board of Fire Commissioners and Treasurer Meyn, we also received an ‘A+’ Bond Rating from Standard & Poors. Although a bit early to tell, this will likely lead to additional tax savings in 2019 and beyond. Simply put, this project would not have been successful without the dedication of these and many other volunteers.
We’d like to welcome all of you to share in this milestone with the District and your volunteer Fire Department. On Sunday April 29 from 1 to 5 p.m., we will host an open house at Station 1. Members of the public are all welcome and we look forward to answering your questions and providing a tour of the new facility.
The Membership Committee will be present to accept new applications and provide a warm welcome for you to join the Apalachin Fire Department and learn how you can service your community during the annual Recruit NY event.
If you are unable to attend, please feel free to visit www.apalachinfd.com or follow us on Facebook by searching for Apalachin Fire Department.
We look forward to seeing you all soon.
Sincerely,
Brian Rieber
Chairman, Board of Fire Commissioners
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