VILLAGE OF EAST SYRACUSE – The village of East Syracuse has sent out a letter to its residents regarding the DeWitt Town Board’s recent termination of its longstanding fire protection agreement with the village.
After putting out a request for proposals (RFP), the town board voted earlier this month to dissolve the contract that had been renewed for decades authorizing the East Syracuse Fire Department to provide fire protection services to the north-town district, opting instead to enter an arrangement with the DeWitt Fire District to cover that area effective Jan. 1.
The northern portion of DeWitt includes more than 2,000 homes, with the area affected by the change comprising the Parkwood, Franklin Park, Dunrovin, Collamer and New Court Avenue neighborhoods, Springfield Gardens, Swiss Village, surrounding sections along Erie Boulevard and Butternut Drive, and parts of the thruway, Interstate 81, Route 690 and Carrier Circle.
That letter dated Dec. 19 states that the village’s entire board of trustees does not agree with the town’s decision and that they “made every effort to work with the Town of DeWitt in an attempt to reconcile” and reach “a positive outcome.”
The letter, which urges residents of the northern portion of DeWitt to make their thoughts known if they’re concerned about the shift and its potential impact, makes a point of listing out the email addresses of DeWitt’s supervisor Ed Michalenko and each town councilor, calling the town board’s new fire protection plan “ill-conceived.”
East Syracuse Mayor Lorene Dadey contends that though the town is counting on the village fire department to still provide additional protection services when needed moving forward, the termination of the fire contract—and with that the transfer of Station 2 on Sanders Creek Parkway to the DeWitt Fire Department and East Syracuse’s downsizing to just the single station on North Center Street—may mean there won’t be enough volunteer manpower to rely on or as much equipment available to provide mutual aid response as effectively on an ongoing basis.
Though she believes DeWitt’s firefighters are qualified to cover the northern portion of DeWitt, Dadey said that the town’s ending of the contract with her village disrupts the working relationship East Syracuse’s fire department had already established with businesses in that area.
She also said the act of pushing the East Syracuse Fire Department out of covering the northern district has compelled the village’s firefighters to defend their own capability to handle that section of the town.
Dadey said she believes the town’s decision could create a possible public safety issue considering the quick—in her view, rushed—turnaround to have DeWitt Fire start covering the north-town district, as well as the amount of time it takes for firefighters to come from DeWitt’s station on East Genesee Street.
She added that the East Syracuse Fire Department has grown familiar with responding to calls involving thruway accidents, hotels and manufacturing facilities in the north district and that its firefighters have continually trained accordingly and secured equipment for their rigs to use for those unique building responses and vehicle extrications.
Dadey feels the village and its fire department have been “undermined” in an “underhanded” way, which she said is unfair to volunteers and their families who have made sacrifices and dedicated years of their lives to the fire department.
She asserts that East Syracuse “wasn’t given a fair shot” during the RFP process, maintaining that the town furthered negotiations with other fire companies that sent in proposals to lower their proposed budgets without going back to East Syracuse to renegotiate its figures.
The RFP process was initiated after the Village of East Syracuse came to the town with a base contract for 2025 of $1.39 million with an additional $800,000 on top to put toward the hiring of eight paid firefighters meant to supplement and assist the village’s volunteer responders.
“Volunteers do not have enough time to work a job or two and volunteer,” Dadey said. “They have to have help—that’s the bottom line.”
The East Syracuse Village Board states that despite DeWitt Fire’s proposal of $2 million even, that department’s numbers could go up once its union contract expires in December 2025 due to changes in salary, benefits and working conditions.
Dadey said the village has been asking for more money for its firefighters for the last five years, going back to before her administration. According to her, part of the issue lies in Michalenko not wanting to view the village board as commissioners for East Syracuse Fire or contract through her as mayor and the village trustees when it comes to fire protection services.