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An Upper West Side firehouse is getting a $400,000 upgrade, and it wasn’t the city or the FDNY that decided it should happen. It was the neighborhood.
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On Friday, Council Member Gale Brewer visited Ladder 25 at 205 West 77th Street to present the funding, which will pay for new rooftop heating, ventilation and air conditioning units at the firehouse. She was joined by Captain Rafal Bien of FDNY Division 3, members of Ladder 25 and other FDNY representatives.The money comes through Participatory Budgeting, the program that lets residents of each council district vote on how a portion of their district’s capital dollars gets spent.
“Participatory Budgeting gives New Yorkers a direct role in deciding how public dollars are spent, and District 6 residents voted to put $400,000 toward Ladder 25,” Brewer said. “The FDNY is there for New Yorkers 24 hours a day, and we need to make sure our firefighters have firehouses that are safe, comfortable, and properly maintained. I love that our neighbors chose to use their votes to invest in the people who respond when we need them.”
FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said the new system will help members recover between calls in a comfortable environment, which she tied directly to the department’s readiness. “This generous investment, allocated through participatory budgeting, will enable FDNY to continue providing the highest level of emergency response to residents in District 6 and across New York City,” she said.
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