Ziobron Leads Rosenfeld by 69 Votes in 34th District

The town's fire commissioners plan to ask for $480,000 to replace the fire department's 20-year-old air packs.

The air packs are the department's SCBA, or self-contained breathing apparatus, the air supply firefighters wear into smoke. The request follows a letter from SCOTT, a breathing-apparatus maker, "referencing the NFPA standard," according to the Oct. 19 minutes of the Board of Fire Commissioners. The NFPA, the National Fire Protection Association, writes safety standards for fire departments.

The air packs top the minutes' list of four capital requests to be submitted for the 2027-28 fiscal year. The others are $25,000 for turnout gear, the protective coats and pants firefighters wear; $10,000 to repair dry hydrants, the pipes fire trucks use to draw water from ponds and streams; and $50,000 for a Conex box, a steel storage container. The four come to $565,000.

The same night, James Radavich, the Board of Finance member who serves as its liaison to the fire commissioners, reported to that board that capital planning was underway. The finance board's minutes list "air pack replacements due to expiration dates" as an example. He also reported 78 current volunteers.

The commissioners also heard a proposal from David Lundquist to enhance the stipend and LOSAP for volunteer firefighters, which the minutes say is meant to retain members and keep them engaged. It would cost $11,300 more in the first year and an additional $21,750 in the second. The board did not vote and plans to take it up again at its next meeting.

In other business, the board voted 4-0 to spend $2,088 on two Knox boxes, the lockboxes that hold a building's keys for firefighters. It also voted 4-0 to approve Joe Asklar as a deputy fire marshal under what the minutes call a reciprocal agreement between Marlborough and East Hampton, to be used when the town's fire marshal is out of town. A proposal to move the board's start time from 7 p.m. to 6:30 is to be voted on at the next meeting. Earlier, at a special meeting Oct. 5, the board had voted 4-0 to accept a memorandum of understanding with Marlborough on fire marshal coverage. The Oct. 19 minutes also say a response to the Town Council on a new firehouse is being drafted.

Running a roadside farm stand in East Hampton takes a special permit, which costs $150, according to the town's Agriculture Commission. The commission wants farm stands taken off the special permit list, and on Oct. 21 it voted to send that zoning change to the Planning and Zoning Commission, which would have to approve it.

Dropping the requirement would save farmers the $150 and encourage more people to open stands, according to the minutes.

Until anything changes, a stand still needs the permit. Planning and Zoning holds a public hearing Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 6:30 p.m. on a special permit application from Devon Hills for a farm stand at 19 Flanders Road. The proposed rule change is not on that agenda.

The commission voted 8-0 to approve a set of agriculture zoning amendments, with the farm stand revision, and send them to Planning and Zoning. Vice Chairman Christopher Bitel made the motion and commission member Richard Walker seconded it. Members raised the fee in August, when they suggested looking into waiving it or creating a separate permit with a different fee, and voted 7-0 in September to recommend removing the special permit requirement. A farm building under 200 square feet does not need a Building Department permit but may need a zoning permit, according to the minutes.

The same night, the commission voted 8-0 to accept a Right to Farm ordinance. Its next stop is the Town Council, which would review it and would have to hold a public hearing before any vote to adopt it, the minutes say. On Oct. 13, at the commission's request, the council dropped the commission's three required youth seats.

Members have discussed the ordinance since July, and in September they suggested it cover home food production and small-scale production. Bitel drafted a version for them to review. On Oct. 21 the only change members made to the revised ordinance was to reword a sentence in its last paragraph to refer to the "Commission of Agriculture's designee." Commission member Teesha Grant moved to accept it as amended, and Bitel seconded.

Members discussed putting up Right to Farm signs around town like those in Colchester and Middletown, and suggested a contest for the schools to design a new logo or sign. They want the council to adopt the ordinance before any contest or redesign starts.

The commission also decided to hold another farm stand crawl, so customers learn where the town's farms are instead of going to one central spot. Members suggested the harvest months, possibly May through September of next year, and put off picking a date until January.

Members of the town's Firehouse Site and Development Committee decided Oct. 5 to go with a new building for Company 1 and keep Company 2 in service as it is, the committee's minutes say. Company 1, on Barton Hill, handles 92 percent of the department's calls by the fire chief's count.

The town's consultant priced four options from $7.1 million, for a new Company 2 alone, to $25.9 million for new construction for both Company 1 and Company 2. The Town Council makes the final decision, and a new fire station is competing for the same capital money as $15 million to $20 million in road repairs.

They chose that direction after the consultant, Silver Petrucelli + Associates, presented its estimates. The minutes record no vote on it, give no price for the option members chose and do not say where a new Company 1 would go. Members split up the writing of a recommendation to the council, and the minutes say the drafts could be voted on at the next meeting.

The next meeting was scheduled for Monday, Nov. 2, with "Final Recommendations" on the agenda. As of Tuesday the town had posted no minutes or video of it, so whether the committee acted, and what it decided, is not yet known. At their April 6 meeting, members wanted to see capital improvement by late 2026 to get it into the capital budget for the next budget season, the minutes of that meeting say.

The consultant, which the committee recommended in March and the council approved, gave these estimates Oct. 5, as the minutes record them:

• A new Company 2 building of 7,000 square feet: $7.1 million, rising to $8.4 million after three years and $10 million after five.
• Companies 1 and 2 combined in one building: about $21.5 million.
• A new Company 2, with Company 1 kept and renovated: $24 million.
• New construction for both Company 1 and Company 2: $25.9 million.

The minutes note that today's costs may not be what the work costs when it is built.

The minutes record no reason for the choice beyond that it made "the most sense to the members." Earlier in the meeting, the minutes record that more than 90 percent of the department's calls come out of Company 1; Fire Chief Robert Rainville, a committee member, had put it at 92 percent in September, according to the September minutes. Members already bring their dirty gear to Company 1 to be cleaned, and "Company 1 needs to be the headquarters for both buildings," the minutes say.

Company 1's "bones" are decent and its facade is what needs replacing, the minutes say, and the consultant said the easier option would be to rebuild Company 2 and renovate Company 1. Parking and an addition on top of Company 1 were discussed, but someone at the meeting called another addition "a short-term fix for a long-term problem," in the minutes' words.

The building members would keep has problems of its own. In April the consultant said Company 2 would be listed as the building needing the most attention, and the minutes of that meeting say its concrete slab and the front of the building were sinking. In July the consultant recommended soil borings or similar testing before the town makes a major investment there, according to that meeting's minutes.

Members considered a single, centrally located building for both companies a good option and "the most feasible for the town," the Oct. 5 minutes say, before choosing the new Company 1. The Company 1 and Company 2 lots are each 0.67 acres, "on the small side" for a fire station, and a 10-acre parcel in Cobalt would be big enough but is not central. One suggestion was to tell residents the committee is looking for property in the Village Center or elsewhere central.

Rainville volunteered on Oct. 5 to draft the recommendation and send it to the council. The chairman, Town Council member Richard Knotek, volunteered to write an introduction and a summary of the consultant's reports, which is to mention Company 3, the town's third station. Mary Ann Dostaler, a public member of the committee, volunteered to write a synopsis of the buildings' condition, with estimated renovation costs and what to do in the short term. Members also suggested the consultant raise the square footage in its estimate to 7,500 to add decontamination rooms, where firefighters clean contaminated gear.

At the Board of Finance on Oct. 19, member James Radavich, who also sits on the firehouse committee, reported on the Board of Fire Commissioners. The finance board's minutes summarize his report: the "evaluation committee" was completing its reports, and "expectations are that new is going to be the only option." Under "New Firehouse Discussions," the fire commissioners' minutes from the same night say a response to the Town Council is being drafted.