Ariola presses on council member reliance for firehouse repairs

So realistically, we're not going to see any of this money anytime soon, because once it goes into the far out years, like 35, it oftentimes evaporates, as you know, because we have a lot of firehouses, you said, are nearing 100 years old, and there hasn't been

a nickel put into them in 100 years, and we've seen

the result of that, which is complete deterioration.

We have work orders in for 25 years that have not been fulfilled, and we'll get into that later on.

We've identified a list of firehouses with severely deteriorating roofs, totaling approximately 80.9 million in estimated need as of 2024.

With costs now escalating further.

So that's the other problem.

As we push further into the out years, the cost of fixing that fire

That issue, that EMS station is much larger, so we don't have the money to cover it fully.

And a lot of it gets eaten up in the design process.

And that's what we're trying to stop.

Six of those projects have since been funded, right?

Engine 62, 96, 156, 264, 304, and 329.

That's right.

Okay, what is the status of the remaining underfunded roof projects by the list that my office gave?

To the fire department, and when does the department expect to address them?

So first we just want to express our appreciation because one of those roofs was funded by you, Councilmember Areola.

Actually, several of those roofs were funded by council members.

So there was funding provided by Councilmember Riley, Farias, and Carr.

And you were also instrumental in getting some of that roof funding added for the big house, which was another one of the roofs on the list.

So for the remaining roofs, that's what the funding that was added for the six roofs will go towards.

It will help us prioritize the next six roofs that are unfunded.

We do have some roof projects already underway, which I will defer to Commissioner Dorakis to talk about.

Thank you.

Hi.

Thank you.

We definitely do have some roofs that are on the way.

Some are already completed or nearing completion.

That would be Engine 325, Engine 161, Engine Company 54, Engine 74, and Engine 301.

And we are constantly assessing the conditions of our roofs with our trade staff.

And we do as much of the repairs as we possibly can while we are constantly working with the home base to accelerate that funding forwards, if possible.

Okay.

And as you mentioned, a lot of those roofs that are already funded came from council members that were funding in their own districts and the big house.

Council member Selvena Brooks Powers advocated for that.

I advocated for that.

And we saw the dish repair there, but the funding is fully there.

But why is it always on the city council?

Why doesn't the administration take care of their buildings?

When we visited buildings throughout the five boroughs, the condition of those buildings, if visited by the fire department or the DOB, no one would be able to inhabit them.

And that's a problem.

So many of the buildings on this list that we provided for you, which I'm looking to see here.

Okay, none of which made your list, but okay.

You know, were constructed between 1895 and 1929.

That, you know, the fire department has to advocate for these projects, not just rely on the city council.

So how many of these projects were sent

by the fire department to the admin asking for funding to complete them.

Was it just the six?

So we have had conversations with OMB and City Hall on all of our capital needs.

And so they are certainly aware of the condition of our facilities and the broad needs that we've identified for them.

But we do operate under funding constraints.

And so the six are sort of the priority ones that have been identified and funded.

Right, but they won't be even addressed until 2035, is that correct?

The funding is currently in fiscal 31, and we're currently assessing to see if it's possible to accelerate.

All right, and of the list that the office provided you, how many of those projects did you send to council members?

When you were asking for budget priority requests?

We can double check, but probably quite a few of them.

Anybody here?

You got a request?

Okay, none of us.

Okay.

I see that Councilmember Hudson has come back into the room, and I'm going to defer to her right now for her to ask her questions.