Rye Brook Mayor Advises Residents About Port Chester 'Breach of Contract'

RYE BROOK, NY - The mayor of Rye Brook sent an email out advising residents about the shared fire services situation resulting from the Village of Port Chester eliminating all paid firefighters Monday.

His letter is as follows:

To my Rye Brook Friends and Neighbors:

I want to bring you up as to date with a very important issue which has arisen in in the past 24 hours. A shared fire services contract with the Village of Port Chester requires them to staff the Rye Brook firehouse with one “career” firefighter from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM daily. In the event of a fire, they would respond together with numerous Port Chester volunteer firefighters.

Last evening, as part of its budget adoption, the Port Chester Board of Trustees voted to remove the “career” firefighters from their budget, moving to an all-volunteer fire department. When that happened, Port Chester put all “career” firefighters on leave, including the firefighter who was staffing the Rye Brook firehouse. At that point, we made the decision to staff the Rye Brook firehouse overnight with Rye Brook Fire Department personnel.

Despite Port Chester’s breach of contract, the Village of Rye Brook will ensure that the Rye Brook firehouse will be staffed around the clock while we consider all of our legal options. As in the past, the Port Chester volunteers will continue to respond.

Please be assured that the safety of our residents is of paramount concern to us, and we taking every step to protect your safety.

I will continue to keep you informed as events warrant.