News from some of the citizen monitors who attended the meeting of the Fairview Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners...

Fairview Fire chief LoGuidice will be retiring at the end of the year.

The Fire Commission listened to strong comments from residents and announced that they will not approve the proposed post of Executive Deputy Chief. Many residents objected to the funding of this proposed position--which was estimated to cost taxpayers $160,000 a year.

I will be pursuing a petition for a referendum to consolidate the Fairview Fire district with the Hartsdale Fire District.   The best time to cut costs of government is when administrators retire. We have three paid Fire Chiefs and one paid Police Chief serving unincorporated Greenburgh. Parts of the unincorporated neighborhoods of town are currently served by all Volunteer Fire departments. Each of the Fire Chiefs serves less than a third of the town. There is no reason why one Chief can't oversee two departments. The salaries of the Fire Chiefs are higher than the salaries of the Police Chief, NYC Fire Chief and Governor of New York State.

The Fire districts are independent of town government and provide one service: fire protection. Fire district taxes in the paid fire districts are almost as high as your entire town tax bill.

PAUL FEINER