We read with interest the article, "Fire Contract in Limbo," which appeared in the Aug. 6 edition of the Roslyn News.

Frankly, we were not going to even dignify this "drivel" with a response, but as presidents of the Fire Companies mentioned in this article, we felt it only suitable to offer comment on behalf of the residents of our communities as well as our memberships.

Mrs. Galante cited that the Roslyn Fire Companies "recently" sent the 1998 contracts to the Village for signature. In fact, the Village was in possession of the contract since April of this year, where it obviously languished in the office of Village Attorney John Spellman. These comments are used as a "smoke-screen" for consistently late payments. Interestingly enough, Mrs. Galante's excuse for remitting late payment last year was that the Village had not received other supporting documents.

One of Mrs. Galante's major contentions is that she wants to have included in the Village contract, amendment language similar to the Village of Flower Hill relative to allowing the Village to contract with other parties for fire protection. What Mrs. Galante is obviously unaware of is that her Village (protected by both the Roslyn Rescue and Roslyn Highlands Fire Companies) is not at all similar to Flower Hill. incidentally, Flower Hill also receives fire protection by the Port Washington Fire Department for areas outside of the Roslyn Fire Protection District.

In the article, Mrs. Galante is implying that the Village of Roslyn is charged a higher rate than the other eight municipalities protected by the Roslyn Fire Companies. This clearly is not true. An accurate statement would be that the Village of Roslyn has not remitted payment on time for the past several years. The issue is not lack of submission of supporting documentation by the Fire Companies rather that the residents have paid for fire protection in this year's taxes and the mayor is withholding payment for the entire year. After more than 65 years of history and flawless service to the Village, residents must be aware that rates for fire protection are the same for each of the nine municipalities served by these companies.

Jeffrey Sharkey, general counsel for the Roslyn Fire Companies, advised the attorney for the Village to prepare the amendment to the contract that Mrs. Galante is asking for. On Aug. 4, we received the unsigned contract back from the Village (four months after it was originally forwarded) only to read this article in the Roslyn News on Aug. 6.

While we seem to be taking a stroll down memory lane, it is correct that the municipalities did agree to support the Service Awards Program. This is a program that took almost 10 years to pass and is consistent with Length of Service Award programs offered by most other municipalities within Nassau County. In fact, prior to enactment of this Awards Program, the firefighters of the Roslyn Fire Companies remained dedicated to providing exemplary fire service within our response district, despite knowing that brother firefighters in companies and departments around us were already vested in their respective programs.

Additionally, Mrs. Galante makes mention of the possible relocation of the firehouse on Old Northern Boulevard. To clarify this point, representatives from Roslyn Rescue met with Mrs. Galante last year to advise her that the Fire Company was in the process of performing a pre-hoc analysis of determining whether a need still existed for keeping the headquarters' firehouse. Preliminary studies have shown that the headquarters is the least utilized firehouse for response out of the three owned by Rescue. These analyses are ongoing and no final decisions have been made on this issue.

Finally, one critical component which seems to be missing is effective communication on the part of the mayor. It is strange to see that Mrs. Galante knows how to place calls at 7:30 a.m. when she needs firefighters to "flip hamburgers" at her Days in the Park but remains unavailable to comment on important issues, like the ones which appeared in last week's edition of the Roslyn News.

The Roslyn Fire Companies remain available to discuss any issues relative to fire protection.