ELBRIDGE -- Update, Monday, 11:30pm:
Late Monday night, the Elbridge Village Board rescinded the motion to abolish the Elbridge Fire Department.
Jarrod Smith is the attorney for the department, and tells CNY Central that there's a lot of work to do ahead, but they are "very happy for ourselves and for the community"
A state of emergency is also lifted.
Volunteer department members will attend the Elbridge Town Board meeting on Thursday.
Monday, 5:30pm:
Tonight firefighters in Elbridge are making a last ditch effort to save their department.
In a story we first reported on CNYcentral.com, the Elbridge village board wants to use the Jordan fire department services. The board says its department isn't responding quick enough to emergencies. The Elbridge fire chief stepped down last week.
Tonight's discussion is scheduled for 8:30 at the Elbridge Town Hall.
Friday, March 4th:
The Elbridge fire chief resigned to allow new leadership to move in, and help fix problems within the department.
Tim Ganey had already announced that he would not be running for re-election in April. The Elbridge village Mayor Hank Doerr says six to eight firefighters indicated to him that there needed to be new leadership in the Elbridge fire department.
For now, Bob Chuff, president of the fire department, will serve as interim chief.
The department was having trouble getting enough volunteers to turn out when calls came in and nearby departments often had faster arrival times to fire calls in Elbridge. The village board declared a state of emergency earlier this month.
There is a resolution on the table to abolish the department, but Doerr says this change in leadership shows the volunteer department is taking steps to improve
The new interim chief tells CNYcentral he hopes the two sides can settle their differences. "We are all working together," Chuff says, "We are all coming together really good on this to get through it. And our whole objective on this whole thing is to get this resolved and get us back where we belong."
The fire department will have an opportunity to convince the board to overturn the decision to abolish their department on Monday. In the meantime, the state of emergency is still in effect.
