Harrison REVIEW THE
August 4, 2017 | Vol. 5, Number 31 | www.harrisonreview.com
Fire Dept. seeking bids for building renovation By FRANCO FINO Staff Writer
Twenty-one SUNY Purchase College students meet with the Dalai Lama as part of their study abroad trip in India. For story, see page 13. 7. Photo courtesy Carly Sorenson
County Executive Astorino announces opioid task force By JAMES PERO Staff Writer On the heels of the recently formed initiative, Project WORTHY, designed to help combat a growing opioid epidemic in Westchester, the county has introduced a task force that aims to focalize police resources toward a crackdown on dealers. The task force will conjoin members of the county’s Public Safety Department, prosecutors, criminal investigators and local police chiefs in an effort to both assess and confront the problem of opioid abuse through the use of data and targeted enforcement. “It’s not enough to put our best resources into the fight against
opioid addiction,” said County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican. “They must be coordinated, and that’s the idea behind the task force.” According to Astorino, who announced the coalition together with District Attorney Anthony Scarpino, a Democrat, and Public Safety Commissioner George Longworhth on July 27, the district attorney’s office will also dedicate three analysts to help the task force compile data and trends regarding the opioid crisis. Data presented through Project WORTHY, which stands for Westchester Opioid Response Team Helping You, shows that Westchester has been anything but immune to the growing crisis
of drug abuse. According to statistics collected between 2010 and 2015, the number of fatal opioid overdoses in the county has risen dramatically, jumping 200 percent in five years from 27 to 83. That trend is mirrored on the national level where in 2015, the National Institute on Drug Abuse recorded more than 52,000 opioid related fatalities across the country. Contributing to the rise in both heroin and opioid related overdoses has been the rise of the often fatal drug fentanyl; its potency has been known to cause overdoses just by coming into contact with one’s skin. Scarpino said, in addition to
tracking and understanding the problem through statistics, increased coordination through the task force will also result in more arrests and ultimately the removal of heroin through the prosecution of dealers. “The task force is dedicated to going after dealers, not users,” he said. One way the task force hopes to accomplish a crackdown on dealers, Scarpino said, is by assisting local police departments—outfits which may otherwise lack the necessary resources—in their investigations of illegal drug distribution and enforcement. “Individual police departments OPIOID continued on page 8
The Harrison Fire Department will release a request for proposals in the coming weeks for interior renovations of its main firehouse. According to fire Chief John Masciola, the department will begin accepting bids on Aug. 16 for approximately $250,000 in renovations needed at its headquarters at 206 Harrison Ave., after receiving the nod of approval from the Harrison Town Council on July 20. The Fire Department is seeking to perform construction on the older portion of its building known as the “apparatus floor,” which has seen minimal improvements since being built in 1923. According to Masciola, the drains on the apparatus floor are currently 4 inches above the actual floor itself, which often floods as a result. The building is also expected to undergo upgrades required under the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA, which prohibits discrimination based on disability. As of press time, the bathrooms on the apparatus floor are not ADA compliant. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the law requiring establishments to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled people with both mental and physical conditions. “We’re excited and looking forward to [the improvements],” Masciola told the Review. “The department [building] is in need of major renovations and hopefully this is the beginning of cleaning the firehouse up and bringing it to a level where it should be.” The fire chief added that the improvements come as a way to properly house its new ladder truck that the Fire Department purchased several months ago. In February, voters in the
At a glance The Harrison Fire Department is anticipating renovating its firehouse located at 206 Harrison Ave. The department will release an official request for proposals seeking an estimated $250,000 in construction to the building’s apparatus floor The department will begin accepting bids on Aug. 16
town/village of Harrison’s Fire District 2 approved a bond for $800,000 to finance the majority of the cost of a Seagrave 95-foot aerial ladder truck—the new ladder truck was estimated to cost $1.5 million in total—which replaced its 1994 Stuphen truck. The department estimated spending about $130,000 to repair and preserve the Stuphen truck within the last several years. “With the new ladder [truck], we wanted to make sure everything was perfect,” said Masciola, who explained the construction will possibly kick start the department’s next anticipated project, erecting an elevator at the building. At the moment, there has only been discussion about the potential for that type of project, for which there is no timeframe for when that will be addressed or how much an elevator will cost. There is currently no deadline to submit a proposal to the Fire Department; however, a mandatory pre-bid conference has been scheduled for Aug. 9. Town Engineer Michael Amodeo declined to comment. CONTACT: franco@hometwn.com