Residents used the public comment period at the Town of Montgomery Board’s Oct. 7 meeting to raise concerns about volunteer firefighters, police staffing, the cost of living in the town and the Wallkill River.

Volunteer firefighters
Harry Luciano, an 18-year volunteer with the Wallkill Engine and Hose Company, opened the comment period with concerns about the Montgomery Fire District. He said the district’s board of fire commissioners has adopted policies that discourage volunteers. He cited a current policy that can negate a volunteer’s property tax exemption and an upcoming policy that would terminate volunteers for “low numbers and low appeals.”

Luciano said volunteers save fire agencies across the country hundreds of billions of dollars and that the state’s property tax exemption is a way of giving back to them. He said he knows of at least six volunteers who have left the district.

“At this time, the exemption is open to ambulance corps and fire service. But recently, for this year, the fire commissioners decided to write a policy that would negate quite a few men in the fire service,” Luciano said. “What this policy does is turn people away, people who’ve been around for so many years. If you discourage volunteers, if you don’t take care of them in any way, if you have clubs that keep pushing them away, they will quietly leave and never come back.”

“Something else is coming along the line. Come next year, your commissioners have another policy coming; they’re going to use the same criteria for their new policy, and they will start to terminate volunteer firefighters because of low numbers and low appeals,” he continued. “We need to look at what policies that commissioners are bringing forward. I went to their meetings and I’ve told them that they are not supporting firefighters with their policies. They’re going to lose more people, and we don’t want to lose any more people.”

Police staffing
Ashley Dmitrieff, a candidate for town supervisor, asked the board whether it consulted the Montgomery Police Benevolent Association before deciding to leave the police sergeant position vacant. Supervisor Steve Brescia said it did not. Dmitrieff said the board should work with the PBA on decisions that affect public safety. She also cited the town’s 2022 police study and suggested the town create a shared communication center with the village police departments, which she said could improve response times and lower costs.

“With the retirement of the full-time officer, when the town made the decision to leave the position vacant, did they involve the police community advisory board?” Dmitrieff asked. “I feel like there should have been an analysis between the town and the police community advisory board to determine how it would affect supervisory coverage, officer workload, response times, and public safety. I’m just wondering if there is a broader plan to this, that we’re moving to part-time coverage. Because there is a study from 2022 that said that was part of a plan to do that.”

“There are other things in the study that I think could be considered to lower costs, such as a shared communication center. I think that would help our officers with response time and knowing what’s going on,” she continued. “If there’s something major happening in the Village of Montgomery, and if they’re short staffed or the town’s short staffed, wouldn’t we want Maybrook to be aware and have somebody they can send to help? We’re all part of the same town, and I think it’s important that we offer to help each other in that way. But I would also like to see us talk about doing that to lower costs.”

Warren Roth, attorney for the Montgomery PBA, discussed the upcoming retirement of Police Sgt. John VanTassel and urged the board to hire a replacement and keep the dispatcher positions.

“I’m here today because you are losing a legend. I’ve known Sergeant VanTassel for over a decade, and his retirement is clearly a significant loss to the community,” Roth said. “I am here to urge you to consider filling the sergeant’s position and not trying to run the department short-handed for a year.”

“I’m also here to ask you, if possible, to keep the dispatchers in place. You really can’t skimp on public safety,” he continued.

Roth said that if the police station is closed during certain hours because no one is in the building, someone seeking help could be left in a secluded parking lot.

Cost of living

Resident Don Berger said many longtime residents are leaving Montgomery because of high taxes. He said the board needs to have a “meaningful conversation” about how to reduce the burden on taxpayers.

“We have four municipalities in Montgomery, and there is a tremendous burden on the taxpayer. We have people exiting this community in droves, and I’m talking about the people we grew up with. Not the people coming from Bergen, Westchester and New York City,” Berger said. “The reason why is very simple: they can’t afford the taxes. I’m a village resident, and I’m getting doubled up on this. I’ve asked for many years to start a meaningful conversation. It’s a tough thing to do, but we really need to do it, and we need to look at the whole picture. The problem around here is everybody always points the finger at the police. It’s not the police, it’s the whole picture.”

Wallkill River
Mark Palczewski, chairman of the Montgomery Conservation Advisory Council, announced that the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance will hold a summit from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, at Orange County Community College. Speakers will include representatives of the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Cornell University, and the program will cover harmful algae blooms and black dirt. Palczewski encouraged town board members and municipal workers to attend and join efforts to restore the river.

“This is something that I think is very important to this community. The Wallkill River is our most natural and precious resource, and I think it would be informative and helpful,” Palczewski said. “We gotta do something to clean the river up, because we take water samples there every month at the boat launch in Benedict Park, and it’s off the charts with E. coli and enterococcus. The river is class B, you’re supposed to be able to swim and fish in it.”

Supervisor responds
At the end of the meeting, Brescia responded to the police comments. He said the board has been supportive of the department, bringing it to parity in 2023 and adding two officers to the 2024 budget. The board has added no positions since, he said, because the town already spends heavily on personal services, which include police payroll.

“We’ve been very supportive of our police department. When Mark (Hoyt) and I came onto the board in January 2024, the board had already adopted the 2024 budget, and there were two new police officers in that budget,” Brescia said. “The subsequent year, the police chief came to us with three more officers, which we didn’t hire or add. Then somebody in the audience mentioned ‘how come we don’t have a second detective?’ Well, it all costs money, and we can’t keep spending when they ask.”

Brescia said the board will not increase personal services until major changes occur. He said the last two budgets contained large increases that raised residents’ taxes. The police department currently has 45 of 46 positions filled, he said, and many police agencies in Orange County no longer hire dispatchers.

“Things have to change, we cannot continue on this path. We’ve had large increases in the last two years because the fund balance was depleted dangerously low,” Brescia said. “And that’s for the B fund, so there’s nothing going to move that unless we do something through attrition or whatever else. We have to be creative, and the police department administration has to take care of controlling overtime and other expenses.”

Fire commissioners explain policies
During a post-meeting conversation Oct. 8, the Montgomery Fire District’s board of fire commissioners provided context for the policies Luciano discussed.

In August, the commissioners passed a policy requiring volunteers to accrue enough service award points to receive a 10 percent property tax exemption. Volunteers earn points for responding to calls, participating in drills, attending meetings and other activities. A volunteer must also own a home in the fire district and be either an enrolled member who earned the points the previous year or a lifetime member who earned points for 20 years.

Regarding termination, the commissioners adopted a policy in April requiring annual physical eligibility. All active members must receive a physical, body scans and blood work to maintain their status. To be eligible for a physical, a member must meet the district’s minimum participation requirements for the prior calendar year: responding to at least 5 percent of calls, attending four in-person drills or training sessions, and completing both in-person and online training.

Members who fall short are placed on probationary active status for the following year and must meet with the chief to create a remediation plan. Those who fail to meet with the chief are removed from the active roster and are subject to termination.

The commissioners said they support their volunteers while enforcing policies to ensure members meet the minimum requirements for the tax exemption and active status.