City kicks Broad Channel fire squad in the ass

FOR a century, the Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department has occupied a small red firehouse about 400 feet from the waters of Jamaica Bay, Queens. The building, with one garage door, barely accommodates the department’s fleet of two ambulances and two fire trucks, one of which bears the volunteers’ nom de guerre, “Renegade Warriors.”

In the mid-1990s, the group bought a plot of land on Cross Bay Boulevard, the island’s main thoroughfare, with the goal of constructing a new building that would be part firehouse and part community center.

The volunteers raised a good deal of money for the building, and things began to look especially promising in 2005, when, with the support of Representative Anthony Weiner and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, $2 million in federal transportation money was earmarked for the project.

Since then, the leaders of the volunteer firehouse have been navigating the serpentine process of acquiring approvals for the project from state and city agencies. But they say their plans have been blocked for several months by the city.

The Little Engines That Couldn’t

Yeah, the City says it's too expensive. God forbid we should spend tax money on protecting the lives of the public. Much better to concentrate on priorities like this: Res 1686-2008.