If you live in one of the incorporated villages in the Town of Greenburgh and own your residence, your property tax bill will have a relatively small charge of several hundred dollars due the Town of Greenburgh (note, the Town of Greenburgh acts as a collection agency for School and County Taxes which are a separate charge). This Town Tax portion paid by a villager goes to what is called the "A" budget of the Town of Greenburgh which provides a number of small but important services to all residents of the Town of Greenburgh (i.e., those living in both unincorporated and incorporated areas of the Town) such as road striping, dog licensing, advanced life support, townwide property reassessment (those folks who visited your home a few months back looking for extra bedrooms and asking about kitchen renovations) and the salaries and benefits of the Greenburgh Town Board members (the Town Supervisor and four council members).
The A budget is a small budget compared to the much larger "B" budget which covers all the services for the unincorporated areas of the Town.
Of course, village taxpayers get their own "B" budget tax bill equivalent from their own local village government to support refuse collection, road repairs and maintenance, recreation, debt service and most significantly police services which is the largest budget item in most village budgets.
So what about fire protection services - who pays for those? Unlike the unincorporated areas which are primarily covered chiefly by paid professional unionized firefighters over three fire districts - the oldest being Greenville (which generally covers Edgemont from its firehouse on Central Avenue near the Candlelight Restaurant), Hartsdale (which has locations on Central Avenue (next to Fountain Diner) and West Hartsdale Avenue) and Fairview (which also has two firehouses with one on Dobbs Ferry Road near Elmwood Golf Club). All combined, the paid (or taxable fire districts) cover approximately 73% of unincorporated Greenburgh. Attempts at consolidating the three districts have been very polarizing over issues of local control, unequal tax rates and varying degrees debt service in each district, overtime, and levels of staffing and the fear of job loss.
If you live in an area covered by one of these paid professional firehouses, you have a separate charge of thousands of dollars for fire protection on your tax bill. However, not all unincorporated Greenburgh residents are served by these three fire engine companies. Instead, there are seven areas of unincorporated Greenburgh directly served by fire protection districts under contract between the Town of Greenburgh and in the case of The Jefferson site, which is in the Chauncey Fire Protection District which is protected by the all-volunteer Ardsley Engine Company headquartered on Ashford Avenue in the Village of Ardsley. Boulder Ridge is another unincorporated area served by the Ardsley Fire Engine Company under a contract with the Town (Boulder Ridge is in the South Ardsley Fire Protection District.
So we are left with this pressing issue - will we have enough volunteers to protect Ardsley or those in its fire protection zones after The Jefferson is built (on top of the Waterwheel development among the other developments in the Village)? Will the costly paid fire districts themselves have to expand to accomodate the new developments in this corridor of Greenburgh that will be ripe for more intensive development after The Lofts, Rivertowns Square and The Jefferson are built? Will a new firehouse have to be built to cover these areas? These issues must laid our in detail in the scoping document and the subsequest Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
Finally, here is a report from the 2013 Rivertowns Patch regarding the approval of Rivertowns Square in Dobbs Ferry:
Dobbs Ferry Fire Department Chief Neil Sweeting said he was concerned about the number of calls the development would create for the all-volunteer group.
"We feel and fear that we are going to struggle to provide the service that this complex is going to demand," he said. "Please consider that when you make a vote."
[Mayor] Connett, however, said, "I think our department can handle it."
"I Think" - cold comfort.
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