Town of DeWitt dissolves East Syracuse fire protection

Nearly 100 residents of East Syracuse and DeWitt express frustration over not having a vote in the board’s decision at DeWitt Town Hall. © 2025 Louie Genovese

DEWITT, N.Y. (NCC News) — The Town of DeWitt voted to dissolve the East Syracuse Fire Department protection unit located in the northern part of the town after over 60 years of service.

The announcement was originally made in December before the official vote was held at a special town board meeting on March 25. The board, headed by town supervisor Ed Michalenko, made this decision to further expand the town’s own department. 

Over 100 people were in attendance to protest the decision from town residents to members of the ESFD.

At the start of the meeting, Michalenko gave a presentation on what led to the vote to dissolve the protection unit, which covers 13 square miles. According to him, the plan is to move towards one paid fire department.

One resident, Charlie Tolhurst who was against the dissolution, argued that the DeWitt Fire Department in his area has only four firefighters and one pumper truck. He also mentioned how unfamiliar the team is with the area as they never have had to respond there until now.

“The very first call they ever had after the first of the year, they got lost going to the call, because they didn’t know the area as it was always patrolled by East Syracuse,” he said.

All the attendees argued the ESFD has all the adequate equipment and staff to handle the area. According to Tolhurst, the protection currently consists of 40 volunteers and eight paid employees.

Michalenko was asked why he couldn’t pay the staff already there.

“One of the reasons is they’re not professionals,” he said.

The answer was met with outrage by both the volunteer firefighters and residents who attended the meeting. The East Syracuse department’s president Scott McInnis called it completely uncalled for.

“East Syracuse Fire Department has always presented itself in a very professional manner. So that remark was unacceptable, especially from someone who is a town supervisor. I would never expect a town supervisor to say the volunteer fire department is not professional,” he said.

McInnis says the board did a complete disservice to the residents by not allowing them to have a say in the matter.

The East Syracuse Fire Department Building is on North Center Street. © 2025 Louie Genovese

As speakers got up to speak with the board one of them disagreed with the time it took for them to reach a decision, saying it should’ve been presented with facts that could’ve shown it was a good move for them.

“Town of DeWitt’s first and uncompromising focus was provision of the best fire protection coverage for its residents of the East Syracuse Fire Protection District equal to the outstanding coverage afforded to all Town of DeWitt residents,” Michalenko said in a written statement.

McInnis stated the Town of DeWitt never re-negotiated with his department, believing this was a personal matter between Michalenko and the Village of East Syracuse.

“He’s had a long-standing opinion that the village of East Syracuse is siphoning money off the town contract, and this was his way to resolve that,” he said.

One part of the expansion plan is to add more trucks to the DeWitt department, but according to Tolhurst it takes one year to manufacture them.

The ESFD will continue to provide service to the Village of East Syracuse, just not the northern part of DeWitt. The dissolution is negatively impacting morale at ESFD according to McInnis.

“It’s going to be tremendously difficult for them to recover from this. I hope that we figure out a way to move forward and work with our neighboring fire departments and continue to provide coverage to the Village of East Syracuse,” he said.