Over a month after the vote that decided the fate of a possible consolidated firehouse for the Ellenville Fire District, Department Commissioner Mike Moschetta has gone back to the drawing board in his search for a new home big enough to contain the district's four separate firehouses, which is made up of three different fire companies. The vote, which took place on January 29, would have authorized the fire department to take out a $550,000 bond in order to purchase the JM Originals building, which would have then been converted into the consolidated firehouse at an estimated total cost of roughly $4 million. The decision to take out the bond was voted down, with many people citing what they perceived to be too hasty a decision for such a large expense for taxpayers.

"We're going to form a committee, we're going to go back and look at the Berme Road site again," says Moschetta, referring to the current location of one of the districts firehouses, Kimble Hose, which was once in the running to be expanded to become the consolidated district. The efforts were stalled, however, when the department came up against environmental concerns for the Berme Road Park area, which was once a dump site. Soil tests would need to be conducted to expand the Kimble House, and should an environmental cleanup be necessary, the cost of the project would have reportedly exceeded an estimated $5 million.

"We don't really have the money to do things like that," says Moschetta. Currently, village government is sponsoring Phase 1 testing for the lower Berme Road Park site for a potential playground, which is closer to Kimble Hose's location than the upper part of the park, the former dump-site, an area which was deemed too risky to continue to pursue for the playground. "We'll see what their results are. If their results come back negative, and everything's fine, then we'll step it up a little bit." In addition to revisiting Berme Road Park, Moschetta says the department will explore other properties in the area despite the fact that previous searches have come up short.

Moschetta reports that, after this vote ended, he now knows more for the department's future consolidation efforts.

"Not to be funny or cute, but I learned a very valuable lesson: if something comes up that quick, don't try to act on it, I can tell you that," says Moschetta. "I did speak to a lot of the voters, I have been asking almost everybody I speak to, just trying to get a feel for what it was, and the biggest thing was they felt the rush of the sale, that it was like we were trying to hide something, which, of course you know we weren't trying to hide, just time was of the essence, that's what it was." The chief also cites several more factors which contributed to the bond getting defeated.

"There were a lot of personal issues where I think the public don't like the people that own JM [Originals], and they voiced their opinion about free grant money that they [JM owners] were given to bring jobs in…and it never happened. And now people want to know where the money went. I was shocked, I was astonished at how many people said, 'Oh, the money's going to go to these people now, they don't deserve the money.'"

"Next time there'll be a lot more information that gets out to the public and much more time involved," says the chief.

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