{ title: 'The Freeport Baldwin Leader. (Freeport, N.Y.) 1987-current, January 12, 2017, Page 1, Image 1', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn95071065/2017-01-12/ed-1/seq-1/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn95071065/2017-01-12/ed-1/seq-1.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn95071065/2017-01-12/ed-1/seq-1/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn95071065/2017-01-12/ed-1/seq-1/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
Image provided by: Freeport Memorial Library
www.freeportbaldwinleader.com THE L JL iJLnJL; JL^J I Freeport 82nd Year, No. 2 Freeport, N.Y. 11520 A Herald Community Newspaper Thursday, January, 12, 2017 $1.00 If s a family affair Five generations of fire service in Freeport Cx '.- -- ._- ' J. By LAURA SCHOFER lschofei@liherald.com Eleven men in the Louis family over five generations have been Freeport fire- men — that translates into 121 years of service to the community \We believe in service,\ Kenneth R. Lewis Jr., a fourth- generation Freeport fireman', now 76 years old, said. \It's part of our family creed. Lewis family fire service dates backs to the founding of Bayview Hose Company No. 3 in May of 1895. It was in the home of Stephen Lewis, Kenneth R. Lewis Jr.'s great grandfather, that Bayview Hose Company No. 3 was founded as the fifth company of the fledgling Freeport Fire Department. Stephen was the second fore- man or captain of Company No.3. He and his brother Clarence, also a c charter mem- ber of Company No. 3, were expected to pull their hose reels, ladder wagon and steamer engine to the scene where needed during those first years of fire service. \Fire response was based on the \abili- • ty of the brawny muscular firemen to drag their machinery,\ Miguel Bermudez and Donald Giordano wrote in their book, \An Illustrated History of the Freeport Fire Department.\ Members of Company No. 3 met in Stephen Lewis's home until 1899 when the company's first firehouse was built on Atlantic Avenue, near Bay- view Avenue. Stephen Lewis served as captain three times through 1905. Across the street from the newly built firehouse was the Lewis family's barn, where the family kept their horses used, in their trucking and excavating busi- ness. By 1908, the Freeport Fire Depart- ment began using horses to carry the heavy equipment to fires and the Lewis family lent their horses to the depart- ment. According to Bermudez and Giordano, Freeport merchants had their horses trained so that when the fire whistles blew, the animals would stand to be unharnessed from a delivery truck and rushed to the firehouse. Clarence and Ste- phen's son Arthur P. Lewis ran the Lewis family business and used their horses for fire service. \They were volunteers, just like the men,\ Kenneth said. \My grand- father said his horses knew to come to the firehouse when they rang the bell.\ Onbe inside, they went into the stalls, where \there were these drop harnesses for the horses,\ he said. In 1914, Bayview purchased seven rid- ing rings for their truck, according to Ber- ^li*^ V \Y -'tf^'^SPM*, Christina Daly/Herald A FAMILY TRADITION: Kenneth R Lewis's family have been firefighters in Freeport for 121 years. He is pictured with photographs of his brother Artie and father Kenneth L Lewis who were also Freeport firefighters. mudez and Giordano. Riding rings allowed six firemen to hang on to the truck on the way to a fire. \Otherwise you went to a fire by foot, bicycle or your own horse,\ Kenneth said. No more is known about Clarence Lewis. Arthur Lewis served twice as a captain for Company No. 3, and his broth- er Harold was also a firemen. But some time after 1910, there was a \family trage- dy,\ and the brothers resigned from the fire department. In 1921, Arthur's son, Kenneth L. CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 2017-18 village budget passes unanimously By LAURA SCHOFER • ' lschofei@iiherald.com There will be no increase in village taxes for the 2017-2018 year. On Monday evening, the Village Board of Trustees unanimously passed the 2017-2018 budget of $71.4 million, which represents a budget-to-budget increase of almost $2 million. Despite the budget increase, there is no hike in village taxes to residents for the fourth consecutive year. The tax rate for the average homeown- er remains $62.296 per $100 of assessed valu- ation. • \This budget strikes the proper balance between preserving village services while sta- Freeport Week Ahead Page 4 School News Page 11 Operation SPLASH workshop PageS bilizing the tax burden for the majority of vil- lage residents,\ Mayor Robert Kennedy said • at the public hearing. He thanked all the department heads, staff and trustees for their -hard work on the budget. 'A zero percent tax increase helps to spur economic growth in the village and that's good for all of us,\ he said. David Tanner, the budget director, pre- sented an overview of the budget process that began with a workshop in November at which \we went over the budget line-by-line,\ he said. The Green Monk Parakeets Page 12 village faced several, challenges in crafting this year's budget, including a reduction in the tax levy of $285,563 and mandated expenditure increases for medical care, pen- sion contributions, personal services and worker's compensation totaling $2.5 million. \You can either raise taxes to cover those costs or you can increase non-tax reve- nues,\ Tanner said. New York state's munic- ipal tax cap would have allowed the village to raise taxes by $1,5 million. But .the village didn't raise taxes because of non-tax reve- nues. \This turned out to be our gem.\ Tsn- CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 lWZfrZ/80 911991.6 HO -y vo
