News

Fire district redefines custodial job

The Shelter Island Board of Fire Commissioners voted Monday night to accept three bids for building maintenance, grounds maintenance and snow shoveling in a restructuring of the custodial job held for more than 40 years by Ken Capon and later his brother Jack. Both are in their 70s.

MARY ELLEN McGAYHEY PHOTO | District janitor Jack Capon.

Jack, the district janitor, will remain in the post but with a reduced workload that won’t require heavy work outdoors.

As the chairman of the board, Larry Lechmanski, explained the move, it was a goal of the district to split up the job and seek annual contracts for outside building and grounds work, including mowing and snow shoveling, limiting the total cost to $24,000 — Mr. Capon’s approximate salary.

“The commissioners felt that the maintenance of the district’s three buildings and their grounds was too much for one person, even a younger guy,” Mr. Lechmanski said in a phone interview Tuesday. “But we still have Jackie Capon as our head custodian.”

The total cost of the three bids accepted Monday came to $16,700. The balance of $7,300 will be paid to Jack Capon for the light inside custodial work he will continue to perform. Both Capon brothers are longtime volunteer firemen.

Four bids were submitted for “building maintenance,” which includes cleaning the district’s three firehouses; the lowest bid of $7,800 submitted by Linda Steinmueller was accepted by a vote of 4-0, with Commissioner Andy Steinmueller abstaining. Other bids received were those of Catherine Rasmussen for $10,140; Christine E. Gross for $11,960 and C’s Home Management of Sag Harbor, which submitted a weekly rate of $400 with hours beyond 10 billed at $40 an hour.

Two bids were submitted for grounds maintenance. That of Richard Clark for $6,250 was accepted unanimously as the lowest bid. The other bidder was Walter Richard’s Liberty mowing and trimming for $6,950.

The only bid submitted for snow removal, which is for shoveling and does not include plowing, was that of Liberty for $2,650.

Also at the board’s meeting, the commissioners in a 5-0 vote approved a new policy limiting interviews with the media to departmental or district officials, according to the subject matter of the story: if it has to do with the Fire Department, the captains must handle the interview, and if it’s a district matter one of the commissioners must handle it.

The board voted after Mr. Lechmanski questioned Reporter editor Peter Boody about the page-two story that followed last month’s meeting, at which the board voted to suspend two firemen following an executive session. The report included quotes from a later phone interview with First Assistant Chief John D’Amato. Mr. Lechmanski said no details of the suspension had been revealed during the public portion of the board meeting last month, when the vote took place, and he asked how the newspaper had obtained them. He also said the paper had been incorrect in reporting the vote to suspend was 4-0; it was 3-1, he said.

All the information in the story, Mr. Boody said, had come from the public meeting and the phone interview with Mr. D’Amato. Some possibly related background had been included as well from the police blotter as it had been reported previously in the Reporter.

The board voted Monday to switch life insurance plans after Vince Marmorale of the Hometown Insurance Agency in Bohemia reported that the district could save about $2,000. He said the new policy offered by the Standard Life Insurance Company of New York was not only cheaper, at $10,164 for the annual premium, it offered 75-percent payouts to the terminally ill and provided coverage during overseas travel. The premium was guaranteed for two years.

The board agreed to hold its annual re-organizational meeting on Tuesday, January 3 at 7 p.m., at which time Commissioner Rich Surozenski is expected to be elected chairman as he enters the last year of his current five-year term. Mr. Lechmanski has served as chairman three times over the years but not three years in a row, as has been incorrectly reported.

Also at Monday’s monthly meeting, the commissioners fielded a complaint from Deborah Speeches of the Ladies Auxiliary, who asked about obtaining keys for access to the auxiliary’s storage space in a shed behind the Center firehouse; she also questioned why the commissioners insisted on having their own keys to the auxiliary’s space. Mr. Lechmanski told her the space was district property and commissioners had to have access to it.

Commissioner Keith Clark reported that the second-floor overhang at the Heights firehouse needed repair work to correct a problem created when the upstairs was added to the formerly one-story structure. A lack of insulation and improper venting, discovered because of the new elevator that has been installed along the side of the building, has let heat escape for many years. Mr. Clark said it would not be costly to make the repairs.

Commissioner Steinmueller reported that board members would be meeting with a private property owner at Heritage Drive and Quail Run to show pictures of how the site will look when a water storage tank is installed along the roadside, partly on town and partly on private property. The board is hoping to obtain the property owner’s permission for the installation because the area is a “dead zone” for water access, Mr. Lechmanski said.

Jackie Tuttle, the board secretary, was instructed to write the Planning Board that the Board of Fire Commissioners accepts the underground water tank to be installed for the Klenawicus subdivision on Cartwright Road as meeting the district’s standards. She will tell the board the commissioners reject a tank proposed for use at the White subdivision off South Menantic Road as unacceptable. Also, the secretary will write the planners to report that an existing tank across the road from a newly proposed two-lot subdivision on Sunshine Road meets district requirements for fire protection.