Mamaroneck Finds Harmony in Public Safety

A pattern emerged at Monday night’s Village of Mamaroneck (VOM) Board of Trustees meeting: Trustee John Hofstetter found himself casting the only no vote on almost every major resolution, yet trustees voted unanimously on three issues related to public safety including allowing for online access of public police records, providing bailout kits for firefighters and buying a new thermal imaging camera.

Working with www.PoliceReports.com, the police department will streamline the distribution of accident reports, usually for insurance purposes. Each report will cost $6, a third of which will go to the village. This is not a revenue-generator, but a service, and reports are available for free in person at department headquarters.

Firefighter bailout kits, required to comply with state law, are literally lifelines. The complete system lets anyone rappel down the side of a building to safety using a hook, a rope and a harness.  The 40 kits, made by RIT, 20 units of standard New York City Fire Department harnesses and 10 oversize harnesses will cost the village $19,250.

Another fire safety device added to the department’s arsenal will be a T4 Thermal Imaging Camera made by E.D. Bullard Co. in Kentucky.  The $13,587 device, which detects heat sources, has several firefighting applications. It can determine if a fire is burning inside a wall, for example, and aid in search and rescue missions.

The board then returned to the divisive issue of tax levy appeals, or tax certiorari cases, in front of the board. With the majority poised to accept the proposed settlements, Hofstetter appealed not only the propriety of settling the matter- perhaps costing the village over $20,000 in lost revenue-but in also challenging the procedure, he received a rebuke from Mayor Norman Rosenblum, who said that “the procedure we’re going through is correct; I’m voting yes." The rest of the board followed the mayor for a 4 to 1 tally.