Emergency service facilities are drastically underfunded

Here in Whitney Point, we’re in need of a new fire station. Our current facility is over fifty years old, too small for the scope of service that we provide and located on one of our busiest streets. Our department is trained and equipped to respond to fires, water and ice rescue, medical calls, auto accidents and more. Our members protect the Village of Whitney Point, districts within the towns of Triangle and Barker and essentially the entirety of Northern Broome through the mutual aid system. As you can imagine, these duties require a lot of time, training, equipment and maintenance. Saving lives is by no means easy or cheap.
The all volunteer Whitney Point Fire Department has served the community and surrounding municipalities since 1873. Most of us recognize the blood, sweat, tears and time that our members sacrifice to keep our communities safe but it’s easy to forget just how much money volunteer fire departments save the public. In comparison to paid departments where salaries are disbursed, volunteer fire departments save millions of public dollars every year. If you thought about how much a given volunteer department has saved any one community over the course of a century, the results would be staggering.
All justifications aside, the reality is that here in Whitney Point, our current facility just isn’t suited for our wide scope of responsibility anymore. We have vehicles “stacked” in front of each other in the building. This means that when we need access to certain vehicles, our members have to pull one vehicle out to let the second vehicle get out to respond to the call. Even though our department is known for its rapid response time, this situation isn’t ideal. When it comes to emergency response, you want the most rapid response possible. When the phone rings and a house is on fire, someone has fallen through ice or there’s a truck flipped over that’s leaking gas on the highway, you want first responders to be on the road as quickly as humanly possible. Every second counts.
For these reasons, the Village has spent the last decade or so researching and exploring the possibility of a new fire station. We know how badly we need it, it’s just been a matter of finding the path to making it a reality. That has meant finding a suitable location, designing a station that suits our needs and will continue to do so for the next fifty years, understanding the costs and then finally finding a source of funding.
Last year we took a major step forward and purchased a parcel of land on West Main Street. We acquired nearly three acres of land at a very reasonable price. At this point we formed a committee to work on the design of the new station. Our objective was to lay out a design that suited our needs, would continue to do so in the future and accomplish these things affordably. While there are still many moving parts in the equation, we have finished our initial design and a cost estimate is currently being finalized. It is highly likely that we will go back to the drawing board to look for ways to save money and lower the budget of the project before it moves forward and there are still numerous steps to go but we are making progress.
The Village has been searching for funding for a new station for quite some time. This is perhaps the most challenging element. We had long come up empty handed but we thought that once we acquired a viable piece of land and had a working design, doors would open. They haven’t. We have contacted the elected official that represent us in both state and federal government and asked for their aid in locating sources of funding for a new fire station. They have all searched on our behalf but have been unable to locate any funds set aside for emergency service facilities. This is problematic.
Of all the things that taxpayers fund, you would think that some sort of funding for emergency service facilities exists right? Not so much. There is very little in the government service world that is more important than public safety and emergency services certainly fall under that category. Throughout our process here in Whitney Point, many of us have been asking ourselves, “how is it possible that there isn’t funding for fire stations?” I don’t want to get into the game of comparing the merit of government expenditures but you get the idea. Emergency services are one of the most integral parts of the public sector and require adequate funding.
There have been isolated instances when fire stations and other such facilities receive funding from the federal or state government. This usually occurs when some type of disaster impacts a community and said facility. For example, if a fire station floods or burns, the federal government will step in to make sure that a replacement is funded. In 2009 when the federal government passed its economic stimulus package, some fire stations were funded in a one-time shot. Still, if you have a facility that you’re community has taken care of and has simply survived to the end of its lifespan, so far as we can tell, there is nothing that exists at the state or federal level to help fund a new facility. We’ve also looked around at private foundations and will continue to do so but thus far, we haven’t had any luck.
Let me be clear; I’m not speaking solely for Whitney Point and I’d love to be wrong about this. I’d love to suddenly find an avenue to funding but thus far, we haven’t and this problem is bigger than just us. There needs to be permanent sources of funding for emergency service facilities somewhere out there. Taxpayer money is funneled in many different directions and it seems crazy that public safety and emergency services haven’t been part of that funding structure thus far.
Not all is lost, however. Some of the elected officials that I have spoken with at the state and federal level are just as troubled by this problem as we are. Something can be done. A permanent source of funding for emergency service facilities can be established. I urge anyone with an interest in the matter to write your representatives at the state and federal levels and explain why you believe this issue is important. In the mean time, we’re going to continue working to find a way to make this project come to fruition. At the end of the day, it’s what our community needs and we will find a way to make it happen one way or another, no matter how long it takes.
If you’d like to donate to the Whitney Point Fire Department, you can do so below;
