New Castle Fire Commissioners Extend Voting Hours; Ponder Options

New Castle Fire District No. 1 will extend voting hours for next month’s commissioner election after officials were blasted for being ill-prepared for the crush of voters in the recently defeated firehouse expansion referendum.

On Tuesday, Dec. 13, registered district residents may vote from 2 to 9 p.m. rather than what has been the customary 6 to 9 p.m. time period, Board of Commissioners Chairman Christopher Weddle said during a special Sunday board meeting at the King Street firehouse. Commissioners plan to make the change official when they reconvene for their next regular meeting Thursday evening.

Weddle said the hope is that by having more hours, the crowd will be spread out, although commissioner elections typically attract a small number of voters.

“Most of our elections and votes do not have the turnout that we had for this one,” Weddle said of the Oct. 25 expansion referendum that was defeated by a 6-to-1 margin.

The board has been exploring alternate voting sites, but other venues such as the public schools, the library and Town Hall all have other functions scheduled for that night, he said.

Many voters, some of whom stood in line for well over an hour to vote on the $15.37 million two-proposition bond issue, were infuriated by the wait. An undetermined number of residents left in frustration leading some in the community to believe that it also contributed to the 118-vote defeat of Proposition 1, the proposed purchase of the former Chappaqua Animal Hospital property adjacent to the firehouse for about $2.7 million.

“After the vote, many people told me they were so frustrated by the (wait), that they said, ‘No, no. I waited an hour and a half, I missed dinner with my kids, my daughter’s bath was late, I didn’t get to help with homework,” said resident Emily Bloom. “All of this frankly comes from being concerned about the new buzzword – transparency.”

Resident Danna Schoenberg said she was one of the voters that had planned to vote for Proposition 1, but abruptly changed her mind.

On the advice of their attorney, the commissioners are likely to scrap absentee ballots, which have been provided upon request for more than 20 years, said Commissioner Nancy Zezze. While absentee ballots must be available for a referendum, most fire districts do not use them for their commissioner elections.

Weddle said the board should likely consider absentee ballots on a case-by-case basis.

Two seats are up this year on the board – Weddle’s and the unexpired term of Zezze’s seat. She was appointed on an interim basis following the death of Gerry Golub.

The board will also discuss on Thursday whether to reopen negotiations with the owner of the animal hospital property in hopes of keeping open the possibility of acquiring the land. The vote was held just prior to the expiration of the fire district’s lease.

Despite the outcome of the vote, Weddle said expanding and upgrading the firehouse will still need to be addressed at some point. Without the adjacent land, future expansion at the current site is virtually impossible.

Under state law, all fire district real estate transactions must be put to a public vote, Weddle said.

He said the property owner has indicated that there are other interested buyers, but feels a certain level of obligation to the fire district.

On Sunday, most of the board was open to exploring renegotiation of terms with the landowner, although Weddle said he was conflicted about pursuing the land after Proposition 1 was defeated. He cautioned that the price would likely rise from $1.62 million to $1.7 million for the site and the price per month until the transaction would be complete would rise from $10,000 to as much as $50,000 for two or three months.

“I think we have an obligation to think of the voters that are going to be here in 10 years, or whenever that time comes, if they have to buy land, develop land…whatever the interest rates are then and the cost of construction then, I think it’s going to cost millions and millions and millions of dollars more,” Weddle said.

Commissioner Brian Yabloner said he would like to have the district acquire the property, but doesn’t think it’s wise for district officials to pursue considering the outcome of the referendum.

“I would love to get the property but I do believe the people of New Castle Fire District No. 1 have spoken,” Yabloner said. “They don’t want us purchasing the property.”

But Zezze said the board should at least talk with the owner.

“I think it’s a unique piece of property and if we can negotiate with the seller, then we should pursue that,” she said.

There were also complaints that angry voters vented their anger at firefighters trying to direct traffic on the night of the referendum vote and that myriad false statements about the proposed project were circulated on social media.

“I think it’s outrageous,” said former Commissioner Barry Zezze. “I think we need an independent look at this, whether it be from the attorney general’s office or contact Facebook directly. I don’t know how people can give out information that’s false.”