New Headquarters for the Dix Hills Fire Department?

The Dix Hills Fire Department constructed their headquarters on Deer Park Avenue right by the Northern State Parkway in 1956.

 The building is at a point now where it is no longer up to code and it has a long laundry list of problems: It has no handicap access between multilevels; there is no elevator access to the second floor. The bays where the trucks are kept are too small—there is not clear access around the trucks, so the bays are not NFPA/OSHA approved (National Fire Protection Association and Occupational Safety and Health Administration).

Believe it or not, the DHFD does not have a working fire alarm system. Their fire sprinkler system serves only the second floor in the addition to the building that was added in the 1980s. The rest of the building has no fire sprinkler system at all. The hood and fire suppression system in the kitchen doesn’t comply with code.

The roof is deteriorated beyond its useful life and warranty; its insulation is water damaged. The bay doors are not insulated and don’t have safety sensors. The windows in the building are single-paned and non-insulated.

The HVAC system is not high efficiency; the boiler is 38 years old; the hot-water baseboard heating system is original to the building; the piping may have asbestos insulation and it is deteriorating.

 The firehouse doesn’t have enough truck bays; 10 district vehicles have to stay outside, which adds to the wear and tear on the vehicles. The maintenance shop where they repair the trucks is too small; only one vehicle can be serviced at a time.

Phil Tepe, who has been with the Dix Hills Fire Department for 44 years, was a chief twice and has been on the board of fire commissioners since 2004, said, “We have tried to fix everything many times but it has become cost-prohibitive to maintain the current building. We looked into renovating the existing headquarters to bring everything up to code and it would cost over 7.5 million dollars. There have just been too many bandages done throughout the years and we wouldn’t be able to occupy the firehouse during the year the renovations would take. We would have to factor in the cost for a temporary facility for all the vehicles on site and all our equipment.”

 So the DHFD has brought in a team of engineers, who have given them a proposal to build them a new headquarters onsite, a new maintenance facility, site improvements (such as fixing the problems in the parking lot, including drainage issues) and to also build a training building at Station 1, which is located south of the LIE on Deer Park Avenue. 

They estimate the construction lasting for 18 months, during which time the existing building would stay in operation. The new training facility would be done simultaneously.

 Tepe said it’s important for them to have their own training facility. “Right now we have to travel out to Yaphank to the Suffolk County training facility for all our mandatory training. So 30 to 40 members of the fire department are out of the district in the event of calls. If we have our own training building, it will give us greater flexibility to schedule the mandatory training that we all need to have and will reduce our expenses, since we won’t have to travel with our vehicles out to Yaphank.”

How much will this all cost? The DHFD is looking to get a bond for $19.75 million. The bond duration is 20 years.

So what is this going to cost taxpayers? If you have a $500,000 home, you will have to pay only an additional $10 a month in fire taxes, or $121 a year, until 2015, when a substation bond is paid off. Then your tax increase will be only $7 a month or $86 a year.

 What if you have a million-dollar home? Then you’re looking at an additional $20 a month or $242 a year, going down to $14 a month, $172 a year in 2015, they say. A $700K home will be taxed an additional $14 a month, $169 a year, going down to $10 a month, $120 a year in 2015.

 “We need to do something,” Tepe said. “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.”

 Tepe added, “We’ve planned this construction not just for now, but for 10, 20 years from now. We don’t want to have to fix the building again in 10 years. A new building could last us 50 to 100 years.”

The department has had one meeting already to discuss the plans and to answer any questions.

Missed the meeting? Don’t worry. Two more are scheduled: February 8 at 7 p.m. and February 15 at noon. The target date to vote on the bond is March 8.

Tepe said he would be happy to answer anyone’s questions and take people around for a tour of the headquarters.