What started as a grad school research project is now leaving to calls for change in New Hartford.
The town has three small fire districts, but some are wondering if they're all needed.
It all started with a 130-page research paper.
“I was trying to answer the question ‘is this safe and are we being fiscally responsible?’ and the answer is ‘no’ and ‘no’,” said New Hartford Deputy Fire Chief Richard Marcus.
For his graduate program at the National Fire Academy in Maryland, New Hartford Deputy Fire Chief Richard Marcus looked into the town's fire districts to see if the system dating back decades still made sense.
He expected the answer would be no, but even he was surprised by what he found.
New Hartford has three fire districts: New Hartford Village Fire, Pine Meadow Fire, and South End Fire.