KJ, Monroe near firefighting deal
By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
[email protected]
Monroe – A contract proposal to be finalized and voted on this month could settle long-standing questions over how and when Monroe firefighters will respond to emergencies in neighboring Kiryas Joel.
At the same time, leaders of both villages say, Kiryas Joel has agreed to pay Monroe tens of thousands of dollars it owes for fire protection for the last year – a debt it withheld paying as contract talks dragged on.
Monroe firefighters have answered fire calls in Kiryas Joel for years, but the relationship became murky five years ago when the Hasidic community created its own fire department – with limited abilities.
As Hasidic Jews, the new firefighters can't fight fires or answer other emergency calls on Shabbos or Jewish holidays. They also can't rush into burning buildings because their beards would interfere with their oxygen masks.
Kiryas Joel has long wanted to restructure its fire contract with Monroe to fill those gaps.
In the meantime, Monroe's squad has remained the community's primary responder.
Under the impending proposal, Kiryas Joel would take over that role for the first time but would cede authority to Monroe whenever it came – a concession meant to satisfy Monroe's command concerns, Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin said last week. Kiryas Joel would pay Monroe $1,096 for each fire response and guarantee at least $54,800 a year, the price of 50 calls.
The village has offered to pay its outstanding bill based on that rate and the number of fire calls Monroe has answered in Kiryas Joel since last May – instead of the $183,877 flat rate it paid the last year of the old contract.
That amount couldn't be verified last week.
The proposal will be presented to both village boards for approval this month, with the hope that it will be signed in time for the beginning of the new fiscal year on June 1, Szegedin and Monroe Mayor Joseph Mancuso said last week.
The contract language was still being ironed out, Mancuso said.
The Monroe Fire Department also must agree to the contract. Monroe fire Chief Jeffrey Mahran said Thursday he couldn't predict the outcome because his department hadn't been briefed on the contract terms.
"I haven't heard anything about the new contract," he said. "If we don't like it, we're not going to sign anything."
