Fire Chief Recaps Storm Response, a Menorah in Chase Park, and more from the Village Board

At the December 11, 2012 meeting of the Village Board, Fire Chief Cain reviewed fire department operations related to Hurricane Sandy. His remarks in their entirety can be viewed here – however here are a few of the interesting facts he noted:

• Fire Department staffing was doubled for the first 36 hours of the storm
• When the storm began, 14 volunteer firefighters worked alongside career firefighters at considerable risk to themselves
• In the first 24 hours of the storm, the department responded to 211 calls while in a typical 24-hour period they respond to 3.6 calls on average. So they did 59 times the work they do in a usual day.
• During the 12-day state of emergency the department responded to 403 incidents. In a typical 12-day period they would respond to 43.3 calls – so activity was at 10 times the normal volume.
• In the days following the storm, both volunteer and career firefighters made welfare checks on residents and firefighters conducted generator safety checks on temporary generators and helped residents with their proper use.

Other items on the agenda:

Public hearings will be held on January 8, 2013 to review proposed changes to the Village code regarding setback and noise requirements to accommodate permanent emergency generators. (Recommendations for changes to the law from the Planning Board were reviewed and discussed at a meeting of the Trustees Law Committee on Wednesday night December 12.)

Chabad Lubavitch of Westchester County was given permission to place a menorah in Chase Park from December 6 to December 20th.

Trustees approved a resolution to authorize the Village Manager to issue an RFP for the planning, coordination and supervision of a farmer's market in the village of Scarsdale from April, through November 2013. The market will be held in the lower parking lot Village Hall or in the Freightway open parking lot.

Gifts of $9,000 and $5,000 were accepted from Fenway Golf Club for use by the Scarsdale police and fire departments. The police will purchase mobile in-car video units and the fire department will purchase enhanced equipment to locate and rescue trapped or injured firefighters.

The Board of Trustees resolved to collect a recreation fee of $37,500 for a subdivision fee for a 2-lot subdivision at 21 Vanderbilt Road.

Personnel: Dan Hochvert was appointed to replace Emily Sherwood who resigned from the Village Planning Board and Julie Weinstein was appointed to the Conservation Advisory Council to replace Lynne Clark who resigned. Gary S. Ellis was appointed to serve on the Town Board of Assessment Review to fill the vacancy due to Janet Bell's expired term.