PORT CHESTER, N.Y. — After a village board voted to cut paid fire department positions, over 100 protestors from 10 different departments rallied to protest Tuesday.
The village board voted to slash salaries in a what officials say is an effort to stay under the tax cap, saving $800,000 over the next year.
“With the budget deadline fast approaching, and the possibility of having to override the tax cap looking more and more likely, the board revisited the option of abolishing the paid firefighters’ positions and decided that doing so was in the best interest of the village and its taxpayers,” Mayor Dennis Pilla told The Journal.
Port Chester firefighters have not had a new contract since 2011, and the budget cuts are what attorney Richard Carenthal alleged to be, “retaliatory on a number of fronts.”
“They don’t realize how this impacts the families,” Sam Virella, a firefighter’s wife told the publication. “I can’t even fathom the thought of telling this to my son. He looks up to my husband so much.”