Clifton firefighters, station due back in action by Sunday

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Albina Sportelli,  The Herald News
 

 

CLIFTON — A fire station shut down in March in the midst of a city budget crisis is set to reopen Sunday after the reinstatement of 12 firefighters laid off at the same time, a fire official said.

Clifton's Fire Station 2 on Dumont Avenue is scheduled to reopen at 8 a.m., Sunday following Friday's expected reinstatement of the 12 firefighters at City Hall, said retired Deputy Fire Chief Tom Lyons on Wednesday.

Fire officials also will promote fire personnel to fill senior department positions that were vacated by retirements at a City Hall ceremony at 2 p.m. Monday.

Until its closure in March, the Dumont Avenue station had served the city's Hazel and Albion sections, Clifton High School and the Daughters of Miriam nursing home, and provided mutual aid to Montclair and Paterson, Lyons said.

Residents had fiercely protested the firehouse's closing and the layoff of firefighters at council budget hearings.

The City Council on Tuesday approved an ordinance to change the Fire Department's table of organization, restoring it to 140 from 128, the number of employees after the layoffs.

The city had resorted to layoffs to close a $4 million budget gap. When the firefighters' union agreed to some givebacks, including a two-week unpaid furlough, the city agreed to reinstate the firefighters and reopen the Dumont Avenue station.

In March, the city laid off 29 employees, including the firefighters, and demoted a police lieutenant and two police sergeants. The police union is now in contract talks with the city, said Al Greco, city manager, though he declined to discuss specifics.

E-mail: sportelli@northjersey.com