Cara M. Piliero to Challenge Incumbent Fire Commissioner Dennis Winter on December 8
By Carol P. Bartold
Dec. 2, 2015: On Tuesday, December 8, Bronxville voters will have the opportunity to elect one commissioner to the Eastchester Board of Fire Commissioners for a five-year term.
On the ballot this year are incumbent commissioner Dennis J. Winter of Bronxville and challenger Cara M. Piliero of Tuckahoe.
Voting for all Bronxville residents will take place at village hall on December 8 from 2:00 pm until 9:00 pm.
Winter has served as a fire commissioner since 2010 and as chairman of the board since 2013. Piliero is the former secretary-treasurer of the Eastchester Fire District. She joined the fire district in 1987 as the assistant secretary to the Eastchester Board of Fire Commissioners and was appointed secretary-treasurer in 1996, a position she held until 2014.
Piliero did not respond to a request for comments for this article. Statements and information included about her candidacy were taken from videos recorded at the November 9 Tuckahoe Board of Trustees meeting and the November 17 Eastchester Town Board meeting and posted to her Facebook page, "Elect Cara M. Piliero for Eastchester Fire Commissioner."
Marked by a long history of low voter turnout throughout the fire district, the annual election sends representatives to the Eastchester Board of Fire Commissioners, which holds full authority to levy the taxes needed to fund the fire district's annual budget. The board adopted a $16.5 million dollar budget for 2016, which will not increase the tax levy. The fire district budget is larger than that of the Village of Bronxville.
According to Winter, the average age of voters in the election is 61. "The people with school-aged children are ignoring a major safety issue that should be important to them," he said. He urges all parents to be familiar with schools' fire safety issues and their evacuation plans.
Winter points to many board accomplishments during his term as commissioner. After uncovering serious accounting irregularities, the district replaced its independent accounting firm. Internal accounting practices as well as health care billing procedures were restructured.
Future plans for the district, Winter said, include rebuilding the Chester Heights firehouse, refurbishing the Bronxville firehouse, and looking to replace frontline fire equipment that is anywhere from five to fifteen years old. The district also must hire a treasurer due to the November 8 death of John Malesardi.
In her recorded statements in Tuckahoe and Eastchester, Piliero stated that the current Eastchester Board of Fire Commissioners "lacks transparency, integrity, honesty, and fairness."
She criticized the board for holding most of its meetings at Bronxville Village Hall and not posting video recordings of the meetings to YouTube or making them available to the local Tuckahoe and Eastchester cable channels on a consistent basis. Piliero promises, if elected, to bring the meetings to all three municipalities served by the fire district.
Piliero pointed out that, in the 2016 fire district budget, the line item for legal expenses increased to $330,000 from $46,000 in 2015, "a whopping 614% increase year over year." "Not correct," Winter said. "We combined legal expenses and engineering expenses into one line under professional expenses in the 2016 budget." He explained that the board moved money into engineering fees because it realizes the need to have a master plan.
"We have better gear, better training, and we have rebuilt a number of firehouses," Winter said. "The board has a very good relationship with the fire department membership and, for the first time in ten years, we held an awards ceremony to recognize our firefighters."
Pictured here: Waverly Road firehouse in Eastchester.
Photo by A. Warner
Government & History Directory
Bronxville is a quaint village (one square mile) located just 16 miles north of midtown Manhattan (roughly 30 minutes on the train) and has a population of approximately 6,500. It is known as a premier community with an excellent public school (K-12) and easy access to Manhattan. Bronxville offers many amenities including an attractive business district, a hospital (Lawrence Hospital), public paddle and tennis courts, fine dining at local restaurants, two private country clubs and a community library.
While the earliest settlers of Bronxville date back to the first half of the 18th century, the history of the modern suburb of Bronxville began in 1890 when William Van Duzer Lawrence purchased a farm and commissioned the architect, William A. Bates, to design a planned community of houses for well-known artists and professionals that became a thriving art colony. This community, now called Lawrence Park, is listed on the National register of Historic Places and many of the homes still have artists’ studios. A neighborhood association within Lawrence Park called “The Hilltop Association” keeps this heritage alive with art shows and other events for neighbors.
Bronxville offers many charming neighborhoods as well as a variety of living options for residents including single family homes, town houses, cooperatives and condominiums. One of the chief benefits of living in “the village” is that your children can attend the Bronxville School.
The Bronxville postal zone (10708, known as “Bronxville PO”) includes the village of Bronxville as well as the Chester Heights section of Eastchester, parts of Tuckahoe and the Lawrence Park West, Cedar Knolls, Armour Villa and Longvale sections of Yonkers. Many of these areas have their own distinct character. For instance, the Armour Villa section has many historic homes and even has its own newsletter called “The Villa Voice” which reports on neighborhood news.
Village of Bronxville Administrative Offices
337-6500
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Bronxville Police Department
337-0500
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337-2024
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793-6400
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