Dix Hills Fire Department Bond Vote Reset for June 14

Residents will soon get their chance to weigh in on a  $19.75 million bond to build a new headquarters for the . 

Fire district officials have rescheduled the bond vote for June 14 after they had called off the originally planned March vote in light of resident concerns, some of which were raised at several public hearings. Polls will be open from 3- 9 p.m. at the current department headquarters on Deer Park Road. 

The scope and cost of the project remain unchanged although voting hours have been extended by three hours. Fire Commissioner Phil Tepe did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment on what other resident  were addressed over the past few months. 

Tepe has said building a new headquarters, which would cost a resident with a home assessed at $500,000 an additional $121 in annual fire taxes for the next 20 years, is a better solution than patching up the current headquarters, which was built in 1956. 

“We need to do something,” Tepe said in January. “It’s not just that we would like a new firehouse. We have outgrown the footprint of this building and it’s bandaged together. We can’t function like this anymore.”

Robert Trinagel, who joined the fire department after firefighters responded to a carbon monoxide alarm at his home a few years ago, agrees. 

"The current facility has outlived its useful life for many, many reasons," he said. "No beds, no shower facility, leaking roof, no handicap access, stopped up drains, severe congestion of trucks and gear to mention a few items."

Speaking to the cost of the project, which would also include a new maintenance facility and training building, Trinagel said: “The hard reality is people will spend $4 or more on a cup of coffee without thinking twice. Or better yet $35 or more on a bottle of perfume that has a mere two ounces of product in it.”

There is a group of residents, though, pushing back against the bond, criticizing the cost and what they view as a lack of transparency from fire officials. 

Joel Baden, a Dix Hills resident since 1994 and among those behind a website urging people to vote down the bond, called the bond proposal “unreasonable, ill-conceived, [and] badly-timed” in an e-mail to Patch. 

Baden, who made clear that he’s against the bond itself and not the fire department or its volunteers, takes issue with among other things: no morning voting hours, no absentee ballots and a post card mailed to residents recently informing them of the upcoming vote, but not of the bond amount. 

Baden also believes a new headquarters could be built at a fraction of the proposed cost. 

“I am not against building a new building... just build one that would cover the needs, not the wishes of the commissioners,” he said.

Baden said a citizen’s advisory committee could have helped develop plans for a more cost-efficient headquarters.

“I am sure, working backward, with an 8-10 or maximum $12 million budget, would easily cover a modern, efficient facility, but that is not the case in this instance,” he said. “The fire commissioners have complete autonomy...hiring their own choice of design firm, giving them their wish list…and then preparing a bond to cover all their building needs.”

Supporters of the bond, though, believe exactly the right people have put together the proposal.

“Those who are opposed to the bond say that it is 'badly conceived,'" said Heidi Levine-Baker, a physician from Dix Hills. “I find it difficult to rely on the word of a few individuals with no fire service experience over the expert opinion of fire department officials whom the community has trusted and relied upon for many years.”

How much will it cost (over the next 20 years)?