DRYDEN – Dryden hopes that with fewer fire departments, even with slightly higher budgets, it can bring a greater return on its fire safety investment in 2025, but its contract with its fire coordinator has ended.
The departments that fight fires and provide ambulance service to the town’s roughly 13,300 residents have undergone significant changes in the past 12 months, much of it stemming from the town’s desire to control costs.
From 2015 to 2025, Dryden’s budgeted spending on fire departments has roughly doubled, from $800,000 to $1.6 million for 2025, said Deputy Supervisor Dan Lamb.
“We need to continue to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money,” Lamb said last week.
Dryden cut to four fire departments from six, ending its $30,000-a-year contract with the Brooktondale Fire Department for a portion of the town’s southwest corner, and eliminating its contribution to the Etna Volunteer Fire Department last fall. Town board members said many of the calls to the department required alerts to other departments to assure response.
The Varna Volunteer Fire Co. now fills the gap that Brooktondale left, and Varna and W.B. Strong Fire Co. of Freeville split Etna’s coverage area. Then-Fire Coordinator Christopher O’Connor said he did not expect response times to increase because Varna’s station is staffed around the clock.
The town continued contracts with Dryden’s Neptune Hose Co. No. 1, W.B. Strong Fire Co., the Varna Volunteer Fire Co. and the McLean Volunteer Fire Department.
However, Christopher O’Connor is no longer the town’s fire coordinator after his two-year contract, reached in November 2022, expired.
“We hired him based on his experience and his professionalism,” said Lamb. “We knew that the money we’ve been spending (on fire prevention) was getting a return.”
O’Connor, Lamb said, has been successful in getting the departments to work together more, acting as a liaison between the town board and fire chiefs.
O’Connor also had years of experience as a professional firefighter in Ithaca – recently as a lieutenant – meaning he also was familiar with firefighters’ concerns and priorities, Lamb said.
It is unclear if the town will continue having a fire coordinator.
The increased contact meant the town was able to advise the departments on money management, Lamb said. Last year, the town could suggest the Neptune Hose Co. No. 1 transfer some of its investment income in a state-offered plan to earn an extra $131,000 in interest income.
“We can have discussions about opportunities like this,” Lamb said. “In this case, it was pretty beneficial to the department.”
