At the Nov. 18 Village of Farmingdale meeting, the board of trustees unanimously approved the authorization to file several grant applications to improve safety conditions throughout the village.

If a $40,000 grant by New York State is approved, traffic signal pre-emptors will be installed at the intersection of Rt. 109 and Conklin Street. This measure will give the fire department the capability to control the traffic lights on those streets so that their engines and other emergency vehicles can navigate more easily throughout streets that are otherwise congested.

Another grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of $30,000 - if approved - will provide the fire department with a computer aided dispatch system to again, facilitate its rescue approach. The system would enable telephone dispatchers to get immediate printouts of the quickest routes and nearest hydrants to the firefighter's destinations, as well as notification of hazardous materials in the target area.

Although there was much talk of ways for the fire department to increase their safety precautions, a village resident addressed a matter of safety that he thought was instead exacerbated by the actions of the fire department during the holiday season.

Bill DePace, 51, spoke out in objection to the 20-year-old ritual of sounding fire truck sirens to bugle Santa Claus into the village holiday parade. "I'm not against Christmas," he said. "I just don't think sirens belong with Santa."

His opposition comes as a result of what he described as a "chaotic situation" last year when he was shopping in a Main Street variety store, and unaware of the parade, he went into a panic along with some of the other shoppers after hearing the sirens. He told the mayor and board that despite the fliers sent out about it, he had no notice of the parade and thus did not expect sirens to be sounding in the middle of the day. He instead anticipated an emergency and panicked until he realized what was going on.

After recently contacting local fire departments about changing their policy - especially in a post-September 11 world, where he thinks sirens should only be used for emergency situations - DePace, feeling snubbed after being called Scrooge by one department, pleaded with the board to use alternate measures of announcing Santa's arrival. He said he hopes it will set a precedent to other towns that use the sirens as well.

"Kids love sirens," said Mayor Trudden, who later talked to the fire chiefs and said he has no intention of changing the ancient tradition. "This is the only complaint we've ever gotten," he said. Though for this year's Santa Parade - which took place on Saturday - Trudden did ask the Fire Departments to curtail the siren use, but not in direct response to the matter at large. The sirens will in fact be sounded once when the fire department drives around the village in December to distribute candy canes to the children.

"Everyone is pretty much used to [the siren-sounding] at this time of season - so close to Christmas. The kids love it. I love it," Trudden said.