Different directions: Hannover Fire Fusion acted; Silver Creek, Sunset Bay May Team Up | News, sports, jobs

Hanover – On Tuesday evening, the city of Hanover filled almost every seat in its courtroom with representatives of all five fire brigades that serve the city present.

The city administration called the meeting with the intention of presenting the five fire brigades with the reasons for consolidation. The city hoped to found a fire brigade district that included all five departments with a tax rate for all residents of the city to cover fire protection costs.

The deputy city of Hanover, Bernie Feldmann, spoke openly at the meeting. He does not want the city administration to be responsible for the city's fire brigades. He said “I am not a fireman. I was never a fireman. This should be operated by firefighters. “

After two hours of discussion, including experts' statements of an emergency coordinator who went through the same process a year ago, and the advice of a lawyer who also acted as fire chief, the city landed in the same place where he was two hours earlier.

Not only could not be changed over the course of two hours – in several cases they were invented before they even entered the room.

The city of Hanover is served by five fire brigades – Silver Creek, Sunset Bay, Hanover Center, Irving and Forestville. The last three of these five fire departments have all pushed back against consolidation.

On the advice of the departments, the city of Brad Pinsky, a lawyer who focused on fire and emergency services authorities, asked himself to take part in the session via zoom in order to discuss the reasons for consolidation and the way the process would take place.

Pinsky spoke and answered questions for almost an hour. He explained that consolidation would initially no longer save money, since the costs are brought together according to the same standards and with the same equipment. In the long term, however, these costs could drop as soon as the need for larger purchases in the street arises.

The city's accountant, Elmar Kiefer, believes that the money would double for fire protection.

While Pinsky does not agree with the feeling that a fire brigade district collects more money for fire protection, he explained the reasons to concentrate on consolidation. Instead, the focus should be on efficiency, similar devices, a central location and the same training.

Pinsky, as a former fire chief, spoke to the hesitation of changing. He said “We have this terrible word: 'My' – my department, my territory. There is no 'mine'. This is the fire brigade of the community. … the first question we should ask is: “What is the best for the community?” There are a lot of good things that can come through consolidation. “

After Pinsky's discussion, the two highest -ranking city administration – Supervisor Lou Pelletter and deputy supervisor Bernie Feldmann – have known their attitude.

Pelletter, not only the city manager, but also the village historian, said that he had no personal wish to close or change the departments. Instead, he urges a fire brigade district to tax all residents of the city of Hanover alike. The fire brigade district and its commissioners would be responsible for the operating processes, whereby the city was only involved as taxpayers and tax surveys.

“I would just assume that all fire brigades are as they are. I look at it from a monetary point of view, a tax district. “ Pelletter said. “I don't care what you do with your fire hall. You can keep exactly what you have. The problem is that you might not be able to get along – I am not. I only say a tax bill. “

“If I had my way, it would be a district with a commissioner committee that would receive a nice tax rate for all of them so that they could all get where they have to be”, “ Feldmann said. “That won't happen overnight.”

Noel Guttman, an emergency coordinator of Chautauqua County, spoke about how the departments of Mayville, Dewittwill and Hartfield merged into a fire brigade district that is now known as North Lake Fire District. Guttman said that the discussions started about a year ago, and the district was one of them at the beginning of September.

Guttman spoke positively about the consolidation that he experienced first -hand. Guttman spoke to the five departments present, he believed that they would be one together “Package.”

Mark Woolley from Forestville resisted the formation of a district and claimed that a district would cost each department its own identity. A resident shot back by saying “It shouldn't be about identity. … if you want to be a fireman who helps your community, you should do that. Who cares, what is on the T-shirt? It's not about it. “

The city has offered to spend 40,000 US dollars for Pinsky to facilitate the consolidation of the five departments in a district instead of asking the departments to take the invoice.

Nevertheless, this was not enough to change some of the heads of the departments.

Some.

From the city's point of view, the meeting was not just a waste of two hours. Apart from the transparency for the residents to see the city administration, two of the departments seemed ready to further examine the topic.

The most in favor of the consolidation of the five fire department leaders present was Rob Weiskerger von Sunset Bay, who also served as a disaster coordinator for the city.

“That's why we're here” Said Weiskerger. “We are here to get qualified people there as soon as possible, to save lives and save property.”

Weiskerger believes that it is much more important to have more qualified firefighters who can draw in an emergency than the department that you represent or who receives the title of the fire chief.

Weiskerger said that after the meeting “It only makes sense” To combine forces in the city.

“It will make our life easier, which makes the life of the residents easier, and that's why we are here.” Said Weiskerger. “It is time to put politics aside.”

The fire chief of Silver Creek, Brandyn Griewisch, also seemed ready to entertain a collaboration with Sunset Bay, while the other three departments – Hanover Center, Irving and Forestville – were less receptive. The Hanover Center and Irving both want to remain their own department, while Forestville wants to expand its cover as a separate department.

Weiskerger admitted that he was unprepared, as contradicted some of the other departments. “I think I thought we would go in the same direction until tonight.” he said.

Pelletter was not surprised. He said by holding the public forum, everyone could see how the process works and what the support is.

With regard to the next steps, the city is encouraged by the willingness of the Silver Creek and Sunset Bay department to maintain a collaborative solution. Pelletter said he would continue to talk to the village about a potential partnership between the two departments. He did not rule out financial support to make a merger easier.

Pinsky warned the city of an all-or-not approach to support a merger or consolidation in any way. Even if only two departments wanted to advance with a merger, this could be financially or in other ways a great advantage for the city.

“We have to do something” Pelletter said. “We'll see what that is.”