The Catskill Chronicle

Story and photos by Carol Montana, Video by Ken Walter

SOUTH FALLSBURG, NY – The Fallsburg Fire Department broke ground on June 11 for a long-awaited addition to their building.

Steve Proyect who holds the titles of Co-chair of Building Committee and Vice-Chair of the Board of Fire Commissioners gave the opening remarks and introduced special guests and dignitaries.

Monroe Levine, a sixty-four-year member of the department and the Town of Fallsburg Historian, made a brief speech. Levine has held every line-officer position in the company and is a past chief and a past commissioner.

Following Levine’s comments, Town of Fallsburg Justice and Fallsburg Fire Department President, Bart Rasnick, who has been a member of the fire department for 38 years, made “A special presentation by the Fallsburg Fire Department to Sonya “Sonny” Smith for your tireless and dedicated service to the Fallsburg Fire Department and in appreciation of your continued dedication and leadership for all your years as Captain of the Fire Police, you are hereby elected as Captain of the Fire Police Emeritus, April 8, 2010.”

Smith is also a fire commissioner, president of the Fallsburg Library and an AARP volunteer, and has been a community activist for many years. As she was presented with the plaque and flowers, the normally outspoken Smith was momentarily speechless. “Let me tell you something,” said Proyect addressing the crowd, “this is the first time Sonny is at a loss for words.”

Following the actual groundbreaking, fire department neighbor Rabbi Yakov Barros said, “I’d like to the thank the fire department and everyone who’s involved with this wonderful organization that we need desperately … may God protect them.”

Barros who is senior Rabbi at the South Fallsburg Synagogue later said, “Most of our members are involved with the fire department … (it’s) very dear to us because it’s right across from the synagogue and we get to see all the activities, to meet them and interact with them. We feel that the community should support them in any way possible.”

Among the attendees were three people who are working on the new building: Bruce Zareski, James Nixon and Peter Marchetti.

Zarzeski is a land planner. His company, Creative Land Planning in Yorktown Heights “was instrumental in laying out where the building is going to go.”

James I. Nixon III, whose company is located in Brewster, is the architect for the addition. “The Building Committee was very thorough,” said Nixon, “and they looked at a lot of options and different ways to handle their building needs. Finally, we settled on the design we’re embarking on today.”

Peter Marchetti of Marchetti Consulting Engineers in Pound Ridge ”provided services to the fire department and the architect in the structural, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, fire protection and electrical systems for the design.”

According to Chief of the Fallsburg Fire Department, Bernie Deutsch, the actual planning for the addition has taken approximately five years. “We’ve had people working on it, and it took time to gain momentum. It’s a long process … We advertised in the newspaper for the architect, engineer, etc. We had them send in proposals, we read the proposals, then we invited them for an interview and asked them questions like, ‘Have you ever built a firehouse and what do you know about it.’ We went to see what they had done at other firehouses.”

Co-chair of the Building Committee is Irving Kaplan, who talked about the diversity of the members. “Everybody had different inputs, we had a gentleman who does plumbing, heating and ventilating, another gentleman who is a contractor, a gentleman who is part of a lumber yard.” Kaplan, who is also Assistant Chief Engineer continued, “My co-chair Steve Proyect is a former building inspector, our Fire Chief is on the committee. I own a custom cabinet business, so the design end fell back to me. … We have a date in the fall for the new building to be utilized for trucks. We want to get everything under cover.”

That’s a top priority for Proyect. “Our apparatus is stored in three different locations. … We don’t have the room to train, don’t have the room for our equipment.” Proyect went on to explain that getting to this point has been a long, arduous process. “A Building Committee was formed about 10 years ago and it never went anywhere,” he said. “About 7 years ago they went back into it. I was appointed chairman about four years ago just to get things going.”

Proyect talked about the need to keep costs down. “We have gone through, I think, seven different plans. Because of the economic conditions today, we had to keep it within a reasonable amount because the taxpayers are paying for it. We floated a bond issue in the form of a referendum two years ago this summer for $1.5 million. We had an open house, we showed our limited space, we had the plans. The vote was held August 2008.” And the public approved it.

In the planning, the fire company kept close watch on the economic reality of the times. “As a matter of fact,” continued Proyect, “if you look around the county of Sullivan, every fire district that had a vote for a new firehouse has gone down. …What we’re building now is truly a bare-bones minimum. It will be three bays wide, two bays deep. Nothing fancy about it. Municipalities have to pay fair labor rates, prevailing wage jacks up the cost of the building.”

Secretary/Treasurer of the fire district, Dave Schneyer, who also holds the title of First Assistant Chief gave a little history lesson. “The current building was built in the late 1880s. First it was a stable, then it became a bakery, then a firehouse. This used to be a one-story building. In the early 1950s the building was raised to make it two stories. They jacked up the first floor, and completely built the steel and concrete bays. This building meets the current building codes, so we can add to it, otherwise it would have to come down and we’d have to build a totally new firehouse.”

Proyect said the plans for the addition are all set, and work on the building will start within the week.

To see more photos or to purchase prints from Fallsburg Fire Department Breaks Ground on New Addition, visit The Catskill Chronicle on Zenfolio.

To view the part of the groundbreaking ceremony honoring Sonny Smith just click on the arrow in the center of the video.