Op-Ed: Battling Over Gordon Heights Fire District

The battle lines have now clearly been drawn and the combatants on both sides of the vexing issue of the Greater Gordon Heights Fire District are fully prepared to advance. On one side of the divide are the African American descendants of the founders of Gordon Heights and on the other side are those with obvious political aspirations, apparently using the issue of taxes for the Gordon Heights Fire District as a cause célèbre to rally their troops.

The history behind the founding of Gordon Heights, like the United States, is they were both born out of a desire of people to chart their own destiny and as such migrated to get away from tyrants and subhuman conditions. The founders of Gordon Heights left mainly New York City for a better life in the country but soon realized that they had to do for self in order to ensure they had basic amenities such as fire and other emergency services. 

Gordon Heights, as Grant Parpan of the North Shore Sun in an article dated March 16, 2011 pointed out in “The Greater Gordon Heights community should have never been developed without a commercial tax base.” He further went on to say “The fact that the community was founded and later expanded without ever being given the identity that comes with having its own zip code is a great injustice.”

In other words, there is no commercial district to help support the tax base of the community and as such the burden has fallen on just the individual home owners to support any enterprise such as the Gordon Heights Fire District. Can anyone remember the term red lining? In addition to this fact, history is replete with the stories of African American houses being burnt to the ground because volunteer fire districts from other communities could not reach them in time to help save burning properties or dying residents.

In fact, we have heard and read where members of the two nearest fire districts to Gordon Heights, Coram and Middle Island, say they have no interest in taking over the Gordon Heights Fire District. This is not to paint these brave men in a negative color. They are just being realistic to say they are not willing to take away the rights of the residents of Gordon Heights to have quick emergency response to save lives in favor of saving dollars.

We cannot pretend that despite the election of an African American to the White House, all of America’s racial problems have been solved. Racism is still alive in this country and it is no different in Suffolk County. And as such, it is based on this notion that the residents of Gordon Heights are willing to pay a little more, than others, if that’s what it will take to preserve a proud heritage and give them peace of mind that someone will come to their rescue within the crucial three minute window needed in the event of health emergencies such as heart or asthma attacks.

What is sad about present day Gordon Heights is not so much the fight over the fire district, but the fact that almost everyone, in both high and low places, is oblivious to the work of the young people, such as Nicole J. Christian-Goodine and the Rev. Ed Christian, Arthenia Sealy-James, Lisa Marie Hubbard, and Georgette Grier-Key who have been working assiduously on a volunteer basis to take Gordon Heights to another level by founding The Greater Gordon Heights Chamber of Commerce. This organization is expected to be the catalyst which will bring the businesses to the area which will help to support the tax base and ultimately help to reduce taxes for the residents and increase taxes for the coffers of the Township.

With all that said, what is needed today are not bellicose shouts of close down the Gordon Heights Fire District but a coming together of all concerned to help draft a plan of action to help take this beautiful hamlet with its unique topography of rolling hills, fabulous golf courses and fine homes to the next level of development. Who knows, with a little imagination, Gordon Heights could again become a great weekend getaway for city folk who could come out for a little R & R and a chance to see what one group of African Americans did to build their own community following the great migration from the south.

On the other hand, a great good I see coming from this battle is the emergence of a new cadre of young leaders taking the mantle to carry on the work of their fore parents to build a community of which all can be proud. With that fact in mind, anyone who thinks they are going to wage war to maintain the status quo of who leads and who follows had better take stock. We cannot forget the forest for the trees, and as such we must focus on building for the future with a more robust and stable tax base.

Stafford Perkins holds a BA in Journalism and a MBA Finance/Management from Long Island University Brooklyn Campus. He is presently a realtor working under the Prudential Douglas Elliman flag out of the Ronkonkoma office. Stafford who is married and lives with his wife in Coram, is a Rotarian and a member of the Greater Gordon Heights Chamber of Commerce.