New leaders at Baldwin Fire Department

Peter Ortiz said he gets along equally well with younger and older members of the Baldwin Fire Department, and that’s one of the reasons he believes he was recently selected as chief of department for 2019.

“I’m just very open to everybody,” Ortiz, 30, said. “I’m very open to talking to everybody . . . I want everybody in the department to work together.”

A member of Hose Co. 2, Ortiz has been a deputy chief for the past three years and served as first deputy chief this year. Becoming chief has been a goal of his for a few years, he said. “I realized I have a lot more to offer to the department,” he said, adding that a number of people in the department supported him in his bid to become chief.

Ortiz was named chief a few days before ex-chief Keith Eckels, 49, defeated 24-year incumbent Baldwin Fire District Commissioner Paul Yanantuono in the Dec. 11 election by a vote of 326-281. The 607-vote final tally was relatively high for a fire commissioner election, which typically sees many fewer ballots cast. Eckels, the general supervisor for Sanitary District No. 2 since 2010 and BFD chief in 1998, said during his campaign that he believed the board of commissioners needed new personnel to tackle the challenges facing the community’s firefighters. “I think Baldwin was ready for a change,” he said after his victory. “I’m very happy. I had a good team working for me.”

Eckels is a 30- year member of the department and a lifelong Baldwinite.

Yanantuono has been on the board since 1994 and was chief in 1986 — his father, also named Paul, was chief in 1967, as was his son Craig, in 2014.

During the campaign, Yanantuono, the board’s chairman this year, touted its ability to maintain fire services in Baldwin while staying under the state-mandated tax-levy cap.

He could not be reached for an interview as the Herald went to press.

“Though the election did not go as I hoped, I would like to thank all those who came out to vote,” Yanantuono said on his campaign’s Facebook page. “I have been blessed to have been able to support the Baldwin Fire Department and help protect the residents of the Baldwin Fire District for the past 25 years.”

New goals

Stressing the importance of firefighter training will be Ortiz’s top goal as chief, he said.

“It’s going to be teaching new techniques and reiterating old techniques,” he said. “Even simple things like putting up ladders. Sometimes we forget the basic stuff.”

He said he would also look to teach firefighters about new technology and safety standards. “I want to be able to help everybody I can,” he said.

As fire commissioner, Eckels will be responsible for looking after the district’s finances, along with his fellow board members.

He said his experience in drafting the sanitation district’s budget would help him in his new role.

“We’ve been able to stay under the [tax-levy] cap,” he said.

Eckels said he would like to use his new role to help increase the BFD’s membership. “We certainly need to get more members,” he said. “That’s our main problem.”

He said he would use social media to reach out to potential members and arrange speeches at Baldwin High School to tell teenagers why they should consider joining the department. “We need to have better public relations,” he said.

Free tuition for firefighters

Among the reasons that high school students should look into joining the department, Eckels said, is that membership could lead to a tuition-free college education for them.

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, a Baldwin Democrat, on Dec. 3 signed a bill into law that restores college scholarships for volunteer firefighters.

Funding for the program — which provides full scholarships for up to 80 credits at Nassau County Community College — was previously provided through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Staffing for Adequate and Emergency Response Grants, or SAFER grant, tuition assistance program.

But FEMA recently denied Nassau County the money to pay for the program for the second half of 2018 and all of 2019, though the reason for the denial is not known.

County Legislators Siela Bynoe, a Westbury Democrat, and Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, a Glen Cove Democrat, sponsored legislation to set aside $1.2 million in county money to keep the program running through 2019, and the measure was unanimously approved by the Legislature on Nov. 19. “We must do all we can to ensure this scholarship program remains solvent so that future volunteers may reap the just rewards of their service,” Bynoe said in a statement.

Debra Mulé, a county legislator from Freeport, who represents Baldwin, said that preserving the program illustrates Nassau’s commitment to volunteer firefighters.

“I applaud Legislator Bynoe for spearheading the successful efforts to promptly address this shortfall and ensuring brave volunteers are rewarded for their community service,” Mulé, a Democrat, said in an email.

There are 173 students enrolled in the program, including some Baldwinites, according to Ortiz.

“It’s a phenomenal thing,” Ortiz said. “It was great that they had it, and it was very scary when the funding got denied by FEMA. I’m glad to see that they were able to help the volunteers.”

Eckels said he believes more high school students should be made aware of the program. “Many kids don’t realize that this is open to them,” he said.