Open letter to the Apalachin Fire District Taxpayers

Dear Editor,

This is an open letter to the Apalachin Fire District Taxpayers. Heading into August, operations at the new fire station have settled in and your volunteers are feeling more at home every day. We’ve also seen some of the benefits of the new station materializing in the form of increased recruitment with four new volunteers joining since the Open House.  

We welcome all of you to come by Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. to join us.  

I’ve fielded a few questions recently regarding the lights on at the station along with the lawn maintenance at Station 

During design, a lot of thought was put into the safe operations at the station. All lighting is super high-efficiency LED. These new lighting fixtures provide ample light with low energy usage.  

There are a number of exterior lights that operate dusk to dawn along with a limited number of interior lights that are on 24×7. Almost all other lights operate on motion, occupancy, or vacancy sensors turning off automatically.  

The primary purpose of this is firefighter safety. Unlike our homes where we turn the lights off as we sleep at night, your volunteers are called to the station in darkness on a regular basis. These lights ensure they can safely enter and exit the station for 911 calls at all hours.  

In addition, the lights provide the significant benefit of enhancing security. By lighting the facility, community members can help keep a watchful eye to protect taxpayer assets stored at the station. The estimated cost of all of the safety and security lights on during vacancy is estimated at a little more than $1 per day. The Commissioners thought this was a prudent investment for the safety of our volunteers and security of the assets we’re responsible for.

Regarding lawn maintenance, the Commissioners reviewed sealed bids for lawn mowing service at all three stations at our June 21, 2018 meeting. We also reviewed quotes on a new lawn mower.  

The Commissioners decided to reject the lawn mowing service and invest in a new lawn mower to be used by our caretaker. The investment is expected to pay for itself in less than 18 months and to save more than $4,000 annually over the cost of a lawn service.  

The Commissioners would all like to thank volunteer firefighter Shaun Foland who’s invested his own time, mower and money in maintaining the lawn at Station 1 thus far.

The Fire Department recently recognized four new EMT-Critical Care Technicians (EMT-CC) graduating from Medic class, some of whom have already completed their supervised field training under experienced medics and are now cleared to lead Advanced Life Support (ALS) patient care on their own.

We congratulate and thank Firefighters and new EMT-CCs Kyle Telfer, Alex Khadjadorian, Braeden Strojny and Andrew Gregor. With these new Medics on the street, the ambulances back at Station 1, and some technology improvements at the 911 Dispatch Center, we expect our call coverage to increase in the months ahead along with improved response times.  

The Commissioners are grateful for the continued dedication of our volunteers and we thank them all for their sacrifice and service.

Sincerely, 

Brian Rieber

Chairman, Board of Fire Commissioners

Apalachin Fire District

(607) 765-2974

chairman@apalachinfd.com

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