During a public meeting last week, residents voiced their concerns to the Hicksville Fire Department's Board of Commissioners regarding a proposal to renovate Station 2. The June 10 meeting followed a meeting last month in which community residents first had the chance to hear about the proposed project and express concerns.

The station, which houses the department's Engine Company 2, is bordered by Briggs Street, Woodbury Road and Ronald Avenue in the middle of a residential community. Currently, the department is proposing to increase the station's bay area and build up by approximately four feet to allow for a second story. Doing so would enable the department to provide members of Station 2 with a full basement with bathrooms, complete with showers, and a larger office space. The second floor would have a meeting room, kitchen and a recreation room with a big screen television. According to fire officials, a kitchen, recreation room and small meeting area currently exist in the building.

Funding for the expansion project would come out of the department's capital reserve fund, which includes taxpayer money left over each year. As a result, a public vote is not needed for the approval of the project or allocation of funds. The estimated cost of the project is $2 million. To date, some $40,000 to $60,000 has been spent for preliminary drawings and plans.

Residents living in the area are opposed to the project in its current form for several reasons, including the inappropriateness of a large building in a residential area, the lack of available parking and, perhaps most important, the threat of condemnation or eminent domain, a process by which a municipality acquires private real property for public use by purchasing it from the owner for its fair market value without the current owner's agreement to sell. Under New York State law, the Hicksville Fire Department and its board of commissioners have this power.

"My greatest concern is that the proposed expansion of Station 2 is setting the stage for the Hicksville Fire Department to exercise [the right of] eminent domain," said Terry Tietjen whose Ronald Avenue home is next to the firehouse. "This sub-station currently has no parking lot, so it's logical to assume that a larger building will attract a greater number of volunteers and the fire department, sooner or later, will look to seize and condemn private property to be turned into a parking lot to accommodate them. There are four or five families who risk losing their homes as a result."

In a prepared statement read during the meeting, John Frank, attorney for the board of commissioners, said the department has "expressed no intention to use [their] power" of condemnation to expand Station 2.

"The board has never expressed an interest in condemning homes in the area for a fire station expansion. At the meeting of May 13, the board made it clear that it has no intention to condemn residences to accommodate this project, despite unfounded rumors to the contrary ...," said Frank, adding that in the past 15 years, major renovations and expansion projects have been completed at Station 4 on Levittown Parkway, Station 3 on Strong Street and department headquarters without exercising the power to condemn private property.

Frank also stated that the threat of condemnation was used as a scare tactic to get residents who oppose the project to show up at last week's meeting.

Tietjen disagrees. "The fact is, my husband and I have been told, more than once, by a Hicksville Fire Department employee, that they can take our house and wouldn't have to give us anything more than the fair market value for it," she said. "My husband was recently told by Commissioner Joe Giardina that if we're ever interested in selling our house, to let them [the fire department] know. I'd say that's putting out feelers."

In the department's defense, Commissioner Robert Dwyer said, "No one is trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes."

Aside from losing their homes, many residents living in the vicinity of Station 2 are also concerned about enlarging a building located so close to homes with limited space and available parking.

Dwyer said the station is not growing as far as manpower is concerned and that a renovated and expanded firehouse is not needed to meet the station's growing population, but rather the constantly increasing state and federal training burdens placed on volunteer departments as well as specialized training needed to handle the dangers of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

"Our business is increasing everyday," said Dwyer. "We are trying to provide [our volunteers] with the accommodations to make their job easier. A little bit of luxury while at the same time taking [into consideration] the public's concerns."

Engine Co. #2 member Greg Markotsis added, "We put a lot on the line and these guys really do risk their lives. You want to get guys to volunteer and to spend some time down there so that when that call comes in that a loved one, your husband, father or child, is choking or having a heart attack, we're there to take that call."

A common gripe amongst residents was that they are being left in the dark when it comes to this particular project. "I have nothing but the utmost respect and appreciation for the work that the volunteer firemen do, but [the concern] has everything to do with the inappropriateness of this project in that area," said one resident. "This has not been an open process from the beginning. People were not notified and a lot of people heard through the grapevine instead of hearing it from the source and being a part of the process from the beginning."

Washington Street resident Elaine Gallessich agreed, saying, "I understand all that the volunteer firemen do and love them all for it, but that's not the issue. I just don't want to hear, whether it's a week from now or a month from now, that this is a done deal. I would like us to be kept abreast of everything that is going on and not all of a sudden show up at a meeting and you say this is what was done and it's a done deal. We should really know what is going on step by step by step."

Currently, the board is considering the comments residents made at the May 13 meeting and has met with the chiefs of the Hicksville Fire Department and officers of the fire companies assigned to Station 2 and has requested they submit some ideas or changes to the plan and operations to improve the department's relationship with neighbors in the area. The board has also requested revised ideas and alternatives from the architecture firm that provided the preliminary draft of the plans in an effort to address concerns raised by community members.

"Neither the chief's office nor the architecture firm have provided anything further at this point and no action will be taken until they do. The board has an opportunity to review their suggestions and the matters get placed on the agenda of the subsequent meeting," stated Frank. "[The board] has no intention of rushing this process and has every intention of taking comment from the community through the planning process."

Which is why, Frank added, discussion of Station 2 was not even scheduled to be on the June 10 agenda. "At the [May 13] meeting, the board informed the community that it would provide notification to the residents when the issue would appear on its agenda next," he stated. "The board sent no such notification because it is not ready to place the issue on the agenda at this point. The board and not individual members of the community must set the agenda for board meetings."

Dwyer added that everything, including where the manpower that serves the house comes from, the needs of the different areas of the community and the cost associated with the project will be taken into consideration.

"Everything is in a context and what we have to do is listen to all your points of view and go back to people like the chiefs, and the architects and the planners and find out what's feasible," he said. "What we are trying to do is make sure that you are provided with the information that you need and we are also listening to what you have to say and taking all the viewpoints. You have provided us with interesting information about other properties and other possibilities. We will look at those, but what you have to understand is those things are looked at not in the abstract. There are a lot of things that fall into place."

According to Frank, the board will accept criticism about the project, but will not accept criticism toward the firefighters or what they do for the community. "They deserve all of our support. The project is not about improving a clubhouse or a country club, it is about improving the quarters for volunteer firefighters. The board respects the hard work and dedication of the members of the Hicksville Fire Department," he stated. "The board respects the sacrifices that our volunteer firefighters and their families make so that our communities can be safer and so that all of us can sleep a little easier. Providing appropriate quarters for our volunteer firefighters ... is important for the physical and mental well-being of our personnel and for our recruitment and retention of officers ..."

Frank also stated, "Providing comfortable quarters and other benefits do not in any way compensate the members for the effort they put out to the community, but benefits such as physical fitness facilities make it more likely members will be in quarters when a [call] comes in. The supposed luxuries that the volunteer firefighters enjoy, as opposed to the work effort that is required of them to keep our community safe from the ravages of fire, illness, threats from terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and other emergencies, is best summed up by examining the membership rolls of the department ..."

Since talk of the expansion project, however, many residents state they are receiving a cold shoulder from Station 2 members. They stressed that while they may be opposed to the specific project, they are not, in any way, opposed to all that the fire department and its members do for the community.

"We don't object to the volunteers having a more modern facility to work out of, but no matter how many people said this, or how many times and how many different ways this was expressed, our opposition to the expansion [has been] continually misinterpreted by the Hicksville Fire Department as a lack of appreciation, by the community, for the volunteers," said Tietjen.

"This neighborhood has great respect for our fire department and especially for the volunteers. We're not saying they don't deserve more comfortable quarters. We're saying that this tiny piece of property, a stone's throw from our doorsteps, cannot support the plans they've drawn up."