Garden City Votes To Lay Off Paid Firefighters

The Board of Trustees of the Village of Garden City voted on Wednesday night to eliminate the 11 paid firefighter positions that the village still has, making Long Beach the only Long Island municipality with a paid firefighting force.

The move will leave the village with an all-volunteer fire department, which is mainly what the village had before the vote. At any given time, only three or so paid firefighters were on duty, village officials said. The 11 paid firefighters were put on paid administrative leave effective 7:3o a.m. today. That will last until Aug. 27, when their employment with the village will be officially terminated.

Trustees voted 6-1 to eliminate the positions. Trustee Stephen Makrinos was the sole dissenting vote, and Trustee Colleen Foley was absent from the meeting.

The village was criticized for its lack of notice about the vote: residents only became aware the vote was happening when the agenda for Wednesday night's meeting was published to the village's website on Monday.

There is still a chance the Board of Trustee's decision could be reversed. The firefighters (or any village resident) can petition to hold a referendum to decide whether to eliminate the positions or not. In order to hold the referendum, petitioners have to collect signatures from 20 percent of the registered voters in the village. Petitioners have 30 days to collect the needed signatures.

Photo: Patch