By Aaron Besecker
LEWISTON — A recent meeting in Sanborn Fire Hall has already borne fruit in some local volunteer firefighters’ push for a better working relationship with the New York Power Authority.
Officials from NYPA and several fire companies — long embittered over support for emergency responses at the Niagara Power Project — hailed the mid-October meeting as productive, and promised to maintain ongoing communication about emergency issues.
“I think everything went quite well,” said Robert Hoover, chief of the Sanborn Fire Co., who hosted the meeting.
Chiefs from Sanborn, Upper Mountain, Niagara Active Hose, Lewiston No. 1 and Lewiston No. 2, as well as three NYPA officials attended the meeting.
They agreed on three items — to establish a working group to discuss daily operational public safety concerns; the fire companies will provide a plan that includes long-term needs of the first responders; and increased discussion of the Power Project’s Emergency Action Plan.
Some discussion on the Emergency Action Plan (EAP) — the guide for responders in the event of dam failure — has already taken place.
Some fire companies participated in a discussion about the EAP on Oct. 27 at the Power Project with officials from NYPA and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the federal agency responsible for overseeing NYPA’s operations.
NYPA officials agreed to provide copies of the Emergency Action Plan to Sanborn, Niagara Active and the Lewiston fire companies, according to John Malinchock, assistant chief at Upper Mountain. His company has only seen the plan for the past year.
The other companies had not been made aware of the plan’s contents for the past 20 years, Malinchock said.
It’s something fire officials now hope will turn around.
“We’ve been left out in the dark for quite a few years,” Sanborn’s Hoover said.
Niagara County Fire Coordinator James Volkosh attended the meeting only briefly, but left near the start.
“It would better be served if those two groups talked directly without any of my input or interference,” he said.
Volkosh had expressed publicly his desire for Upper Mountain to work through the county to resolve their issues with NYPA. Upper Mountain officials, as well as other fire company officials, resisted that push.
Some officials wanted Volkosh to stay, while others were glad he didn’t remain at the meeting.
A lot of the politics with the county were cut out of the meeting, according to Hoover.
Assistant Chief Jon Schultz of Upper Mountain said his company wanted Volkosh to stay because he made several comments in the press about the situation, which initially sprung up between Upper Mountain and NYPA.
From now on, the county won’t be involved in the process, according to Malinchock.
NYPA officials expressed optimism about the future of their relationship with volunteer firefighters.
“We look forward now to working closer with these companies,” said Brian Vattimo, director of communications for NYPA. “We want to move forward.”
