Amid financial belt tightening having to do with the 2016-17 Village of Garden City budget, trustee John DeMaro announced that two planned layoffs within the village fire department have been indefinitely deferred. DeMaro serves as liaison to the fire department.
“In the weeks following our last village board of trustees meeting following the passing of the budget, the two career firefighters who had previously put in their retirement papers (Cadigan and Rugulo) did, in fact, retire,” DeMaro said. “Those retirements produced the minimum level of savings that the village had targeted in its 2016-17 budget.”
With those savings now assured, DeMaro added that the village board sought the recommendation of the chief of the Garden City Fire Department with regard to further staff reductions, and he recommended the indefinite deferrment of the two layoffs, which the village board has accepted.
Lieutenant Louis Mira of the Garden City Fire Department presented the village board a petition of 1,700 signatures by residents and business owners calling for the rejection of the layoffs. Numerous residents and department members, as well as Garden City Professional Firefighters’ Association President T.J. Michon spoke in vehement opposition to the layoffs.
The eliminations were part of the village’s 2016-17 budget, to which village officials cited financial constraints in meeting the New York State tax cap as rationale for the proposed cuts.
“On behalf of the Garden City Professional Firefighters, I want to thank the chief’s office for their recommending, and board of trustees for accepting it,” Michon said at the village board meeting on June 2. “Not going ahead with these layoffs means a lot to the fire fighters and their families.”
