Political Quotes

“I rise this morning to commemorate the longstanding and storied traditions of the Island Park Volunteer Fire Department. The Island Park Fire Department was started 100 years ago when a group of young men in Island Park gathered together at a local pub and decided that they needed a fire department as they planned to incorporate 2 years later what would become the village of Island Park. At that meeting they elected their first chief, Hubert Miele. Over the last 100 years, the Island Park Fire Department has seen its fair share of ups and downs. We lost one of our members on the battlefields in World War II, Charles Talbot, Jr. We had two line-of-duty deaths: honorary Chief Michael Fischer and ex-Chief Ronald Nurnberger to 9/11-related illness. In 1976 we saw an explosion along our waterfront that caused death and closed 63 area beaches for weeks after. We saw the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic and, of course, the devastation of Hurricane Sandy as the village of Island Park was one of the hardest hit communities on the East Coast. However, some of our worst times gave us the opportunity to show some of our best, and the Island Park Fire Department has forever been a beacon in the Island Park community. It is that go-to place where people could find safety and where they could get help. During the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, they found food, they found a place to utilize bathrooms, and they talked to their government officials.…”