By Tara Dooley, Staff Writer
The City Council delivered Mayor Rudolph Giuliani another clear message last week about fire alarm boxes: Don't touch a single box until you prove it's worth it.
By a vote of 47 to 2, the council overrode the mayor's veto of a bill blocking his effort to remove the city's 16,300 alarm boxes, 2,651 of which are in the borough.
The council's original bill, passed Jan. 19, faulted the Fire Department's proposal for removing the alarm boxes and demanded a more detailed analysis of how neighborhoods could summon help in emergencies if the boxes were removed. The mayor vetoed the bill last month.
But plans to take alarm boxes off the street have not been shelved. Fire Commissioner Howard Safir has said the administration would begin work on another proposal with cooperation from the council.
Councilwoman June M. Eisland, who represents the northern section of the borough, including parts of Fordham Road, said the current proposal would make it difficult to report emergencies in neighborhoods where few people have phones. Nonresidential areas near large parks would also be endangered.
"There has been no sufficient plan to fill in the gaps for that kind of service," she said in an interview last week.
Community Districts 1 through 6 rank in the top ten districts throughout the city with the fewest household telephones. The neighborhoods include Melrose, Hunts Point, Longwood, Fordham and East Tremont.
"Right now I can't see removing something without a replacement," said Eisland, who sits on the council's public safety committee.
State Supreme Court Justice Walter M. Schackman delivered a similar message Feb. 22 when he temporarily blocked the city from removing the boxes. He ruled that the proposal was "not based upon a careful and comprehensive examination of all facets of the problem."
According to the Fire Department, alarm boxes are primarily used in false alarms and removing them would save at least $4.9 million. Under the proposal, residents would rely on an enhanced 911 system and cellular phones to report fires.
But Eisland does not see the wisdom in replacing the alarm boxes at all.
"For my area, I subscribe to the theory, `If it ain't broke, don't fix it,'" she said.