City Council votes to dissolve Churchtown Fire Protection District | Hudsonvalley360.com

AB Shaw Fire Company takes over fire company contract with city following public hearing.

Churchtown Fire Company's contract with the town of Claverack will end July 1 and merge with the Claverack Fire District, Claverack Town Supervisor Clifford Weigelt said Friday.

“That doesn’t mean Churchtown is over,” he said. “Claverack (Fire District) can hire them and continue to use them.”

The city had been working on consolidating fire companies for about five years, Weigelt said.

“We got to the point where we had to do something,” he said. “We are trying to consolidate the fire companies because they don’t have enough members, and to ensure everyone is protected.”

A fire protection district is a tax-exempt entity that contracts with the municipalities or fire districts where it operates. The Churchtown Fire District was established 89 years ago, in 1935.

The Churchtown Fire Company will still exist without its contract, said Bob Pruesser, Churchtown Fire Company board director.

“We are a fire department without a contract,” he said. “We are going to keep our equipment, temporarily, and we have created a company.”

The department is open to contracting with other fire departments in the Claverack Fire District, Pruesser said.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “We will continue as we are doing. The doors are open to contract with us if they wish.

State and federal funds are available to consolidate fire companies into a protection district, Weigelt said.

“The state wants everyone to come together, and there’s money for new equipment, new fire stations, if you show consolidation,” he said.

The company also previously served Taghkanic and on Jan. 1 stopped responding to calls in the town after the Taghkanic City Council voted to incorporate the fire company into the Taghkanic Fire District.

The Churchtown Fire Company is not just a firefighting company, Claverack resident Stephanie Sussman said during Thursday's public hearing.

“It’s a community service, a community space that has served our Churchtown community,” she said. “I live in the Churchtown Fire District and it’s more than just a firefighting organization, and I feel like that’s been overlooked in your thinking.”

The city has not overlooked the importance of firefighters to the community, Weigelt said at the meeting.

“I've been in this building for years, since I grew up, so I know everything about this building,” he said. “I'm very hurt that this is all working, but you have to understand that we have to separate the building from the fire company itself to make sure we get the job done.”

The Churchtown Fire Company will continue to work with the community, Alan Sorokey, a 21-year member of the Churchtown Fire Company, said at the meeting.

“We’re going to make this a community standard and we’re going to continue to do what we’re doing,” he said. “We own the fire station and we’re not going to abandon it because it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears.”

Nancy Cerniglia lives in Taghkanic and said she will be affected by the decision to disband the fire protection district.

When she moved to the area 24 years ago, she suffered a chimney fire on Thanksgiving that the fire company responded to, Cerniglia said.

“The Churchtown Fire Station was there 24 years ago when I first moved in as a single mother with an 11-year-old, and I had a chimney fire,” he said. she declared. “These men were there all day on Thanksgiving Day. I didn't have a coffee maker, I didn't have a cup of coffee to give them, I didn't have anything, but they stood there and made sure my newly purchased house was in good shape.

The dissolution of the fire protection district is significant, Cerniglia said.

“What worries me today is that my house is burning,” she said. “What worries me now is that if I slip and fall in my bathtub, that someone will be there to help me. It's serious.”