March 13, 2009
CLIFTON – A dozen Fire Department employees lost their jobs and a firehouse closed last week after budget cuts forced the City Council to execute a plan to lay off 41 municipal workers.
Fire Company 2 on Dumont Avenue ceased operations at 8 a.m. on Saturday, March 7 amid a crowd of 100 firefighters and supporters who gathered for a vigil as doors to the firehouse were closed indefinitely.
The engine company covered a wide area which included the Hazel and Albion sections, Clifton High School and the Daughters of Miriam nursing home on Hazel Street. The company also assisted the municipalities of Montclair and Paterson in mutual aid calls.
Five fire stations remain open in the City. With the closing of the Dumont Avenue station, Engine 6 from Broad Street and Van Houten Avenue is the next closest to respond.
Firefighters say they worry that response time will be slower and residents’ lives will be at greater risk with one less firehouse in a City dotted with hundreds of businesses, apartments and multi-family houses. Because firefighters are also trained emergency medical technicians, (EMTs) they also respond to life-threatening cardiac arrest or respiratory emergencies.
"Somebody in this community is going to die," Clifton’s fire union head Bob De Luca said to residents during Saturday morning’s gathering, adding their blood will be on the Council members’ hands.
The City Council worked with the City’s unions to prevent laying off 60 City employees. The Council asked the bargaining units to freeze salaries at the 2008 rate this year despite union contracts already approved that called for salary increases. The Firemen’s Mutual Benevolent Association (FMBA) submitted multiple proposals to the Council to keep 16 firefighters and a deputy chief from being laid off and a firehouse from being closed. Council members said despite the FMBA’s agreement to take an approximate 5 percent pay cut in 2009, they could not agree to a contract extension and the promise of no future layoffs – two concessions the union had included in their offer.
"We very simply went to the unions, and said we need a wage freeze in 2009. What are you going to give us in exchange to this?" said Councilman Joe Cupoli. "We didn’t have anything to exchange but the exchange was that everyone could keep their jobs."
"It was really the unions that decided to close the firehouse. It was the unions’ decision to go through with the layoffs," he said, adding, "The unions gave us what we wanted in 2009 but they put demands in there we couldn’t meet."
Officials said they would still consider another proposal from the union.
Last week, Joseph Verderosa, who had been serving as acting chief while he was a deputy chief following the retirement of Chief Jeffrey Adams, was named chief of the Fire Department and Capt. Henry Cholewczynski was appointed to Deputy Chief.
Two other firefighters retired and one deputy chief position was eliminated. The City was also able to keep four firefighters employed with retirement funds and promotions, officials said. Still, the staff cuts leave 12 laid off firefighters wondering where else they will find work.
Billy Lauritano is one of the laid off firefighters.
The 37-year-old Lauritano, a Clifton firefighter for two and a half years, left his corporate job to fight fires in the City where he and his wife are raising their two young boys.
While the City Council was deliberating his future last Friday, Lauritano said he didn’t know what he would do next.
The lifelong City resident said "I honestly didn't know it would come to this point."
After 13 years in the private sector, he said firefighting was where his heart was. "At the end of the day, we're helping people. It's very honorable. It’s something that we're proud to do and it’s something I can tell my kids I'm proud to do," said Lauritano. "My 6-year-old said ‘Daddy, what are you going to be now?’ He's always known me as a firefighter. I don't know what to tell him."
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