Mayor Declines To Accept

Cut-Rate Fire District Offer

Herzig Offers Face-To-Face Negotiations

ONEONTA – Mayor Gary Herzig this afternoon declined to accept an offer to provide fire protection to Town of Oneonta Fire District #1 for three months at monthly charge 10 percent below what Common Council rejected earlier in the week.

The Fire District is facing a Dec. 31 deadline to renew its contract for service from the Oneonta Fire Department or lose fire-protection in the new year.

“I am … perplexed by your proposal that ‘the city agree to a three-month contract in the amount of $80,000’,” Herzig responded today to a proposal sent yesterday by the Fire District’s lawyer, Terence Hannigan of Delmar.  “In my e-mail of 12/16/16 to the commissioners, I notified them that the City Council failed to consider a multi-year contract valued at $85,893 per month for the first year.

“I am unable to justify calling a special meetinf of the council to consider a contract valued at considerably less than one they failed to consider earlier this week,” the mayor wrote.

Herzig said “back-and-forth letters” are an ineffective way to come to an agreement.  “If  there is a commitment to continue a long-term partnership between the city and the Town Fire District, I suggest we meet to discuss,” the letter stated.

The mayor said he and the acting city manager will make “every effect to be available to meet at your convenience.”