The Village of Nissequogue Fire Department is upgrading its operations with a renovated firehouse, a new ambulance equipped with an automatic stretcher and local dispatching through Town of Smithtown Public Safety Department.
Officials will bond and dip into reserves to fund the roughly $747,000 capital items, and the village will pay an annual fee starting at $10,000 for the dispatch service. But recently retired debt on a department pumper make it unlikely residents will see any increase to their tax bills because of the upgrades, Mayor Rich Smith said.
The department is one of the area’s smallest, with 63 members protecting about 570 homes and a small boarding school. Its budget is $237,600. But membership has nearly doubled over the past decade and firefighters and EMTs are busier than ever, responding to a village record of 221 alarms in 2017.