This is an open letter to the South Farmingdale and Massapequa Park community from Fire Commissioner Donald Mormino of the South Farmingdale Fire Department.

I currently serve as one of your fire commissioners. You, the public, have elected me to act as your voice in Fire Department matters. In my 28 years as a member of the South Farmingdale Fire Department I, as well as the 105 other members of the South Farmingdale Fire Department, serve day to day, our community with great pride, honor and integrity. I can speak with knowledge and great detail about the South Farmingdale Fire Department but I suspect the surrounding Departments feel the same as I.

Some of our residents have asked why we volunteer and why we don't we have a paid fire department. Some ask, what, if any, perks do the firefighters receive and why?

If we had to pay for fire and ambulance protection within our fire district, your fire tax assessment on your county tax would nearly triple. According to research already completed, and using the standards already figured including manning requirements by ISO (Insurance Service Organization), operating budgets and personnel salaries, the cost of a paid fire service for Long Island would be at least $1.3 billion. Some say the cost would be less with a combination paid and volunteer service. Either or, it is significantly more that what we are paying today.

I can tell you what it would cost to run emergency services in South Farmingdale. The average fire tax in South Farmingdale is about $208 per household. That $208 per household gives you a fully operational volunteer fire department with 105 members, two firehouses, state of the art fire apparatus and equipment that meet our needs for our area. In comparison to the 179 Fire Districts on Long Island, we are in the bottom 22 percent.

If we wanted to go to a paid fire service here, calculations show that each paid fire company costs about $1.5 million in salary and benefits for 24 hour coverage seven days a week. If you use an average salary of $50,000 and benefits of $15,000, the fire district would easily have to pay for each firefighter, a salary cost of approximately $65,000 a year. But please note that the two paid departments in Nassau County are paid significantly more per employee.

Our South Farmingdale community, which encompasses four square miles, would require a minimum of one engine company and one ladder company with minimum safety staffing. The engine would have to be staffed with at least four firefighters and ladders with five. To pay for 24-hour coverage, every day of the year, you would need a total of 45 firefighters. Just the salary and benefits would be $2,925,000. Then, let's not forget that we have to pay the EMS personnel for our medical emergencies. That would be about $650,000 per year for two medics to be on duty at all times, all year long. Then don't forget to add overtime, salary for support personnel and administrative staff, and overtime for vacation coverage. Then don't leave out the cost of apparatus, maintenance and building maintenance and the apparatus repair maintenance. Then there's the training. We have to provide coverage for those firefighters and EMS personnel to obtain those hundreds of hours of paid training required by law. Then when you finally determine the bottom line, what will it cost our taxpayers? Just the salaries alone are about $3 million a year, just for our area. With the other costs included one can easily calculate that our community is looking at a yearly bill of close to 4 million dollars. That is almost triple of what the operating budget is now.

Most residents, if not all, are concerned with the upward trend of our property taxes already. If we had to pay for fire and EMS protection, this will surely make our tax burden even more unbearable. Does anyone want to pay more taxes?

What do we do for our neighbors and friends in our community?

The South Farmingdale Fire Department doesn't just fight fires. We are also your primary response agency for ambulance calls. In addition to our fire calls last year, we answered over 600 requests in our town just for an ambulance.

Annually we hold our open house during Fire Prevention Week to teach our community about fire protection. This year well over 400 residents and children came to hear not only what we had to say but also the other organizations we arranged to be there with us.

Each year we teach over 300 of our Woodward Parkway and Our Lady of Lourdes students fire prevention, what to do in case of fire or emergencies, what to do when a situation occurs and how to get out alive. The program has been so effective I would like to share some proof that we make an impact on our children. I will tell you about the story of Kyle, a fifth-grader who I was honored to present a community award to a few years ago in front of his fellow students at Woodward Parkway. Kyle saved himself and his two sleeping brothers from a fire, which began in their kitchen. When asked how he knew what to do he emphatically stated "I learned it at the fire house." What price do you put on that?

We also stand-by at your school football games and community sponsored events with our volunteers. We are there protecting our community with our volunteer EMS medics for the Town of Oyster Bay's Night Under the Stars Program at Allen Park. We build bookcases for our library. We bring smiles to the faces of our community children each year when Santa Clause makes his trip around our town with our volunteers. We gave smoke detectors away to new mothers in conjunction with our local hospital. We adopt needy families for the holidays.

We do all of this for free, 24-hours a day, seven days a week, for no pay.

It is no secret that we need more volunteers. We do the absolute best with who and what we have. We consistently look for avenues to recruit more volunteers. We recruit whenever and wherever necessary. But, in doing all of the above, we also try to retain those we already have.

In today's society some just don't have the time to volunteer. Some can't afford to volunteer. Two income households with both spouses working, childcare concerns, affordable housing all comes into play. We try to provide our members with small perks to keep them coming out. Does it work? I believe some do. Nassau County has given the fire service volunteers a tax break on our county tax bill. I am happy to report that my discount on my 2005 General tax bill was $4.56. That's right a whole $4.56. The legislature has graciously agreed to readjust the computation for the 2006 tax year. Thank you Nassau County.

We try to retain the firefighters we have recruited. How can they afford to stay here? How can they afford to pay the increasing property taxes here? This is where our tax incentives and the small perks we award them come into play. The little that we give them to stay and volunteer in our town, and help them afford to live in our town is way less than what we would have to pay for paid fire and ambulance protection.

In closing, I would like to thank the community for your never-ending support. You have always been there for us, and we will continue to be there for you. In the event that you wish to speak with me please call my office. I am always available. You can reach my office at 249-8898, extension 12. If you wish to become a volunteer firefighter or medic, please contact our chiefs at 249-4250.

Don Mormino

Fire Commissioner, South Farmingdale Fire Department