Homer and Cortlandville Fire Chief’s Riley and Biviano Have a New Years Resolution for You

Jack Eves: [00:00:00] X101 always classic Jack here in the studio. And joining me in the studio today is the Village of Homer Fire Chief Jay Riley, as well as the Cortlandville Fire Chief Mike Biviano. Guys, it’s always great to see you guys.

Chief Biviano: Good afternoon, Jack. Happy New Year’s.

Jack Eves: Happy New Year’s to you. And, speaking in New Year’s, I think, there’s a great topic to talk about for New Year’s resolutions.

Is that right?

Chief Riley: Yeah. We’ve always been searching for things for. Ever as regards to what people wanna do New year, new me type thing. One thing that we would like to challenge the, the listeners out there is join your local volunteer organization, whether it be the fire department or any other, walks of life.

These communities thrive on volunteerism, and we can’t do anything without. The help of the public. And one way to give back would be to join your local volunteer fire organization.

Jack Eves: Definitely. You know, very important. And, a good thing to note too, I think with joining as a volunteer fire with a volunteer fire department is there’s many positions and roles you can do.

It’s not just like one thought, like, okay, joining as a volunteer, it’s going inside, [00:01:00] trying to extinguish fire. There’s so much other. Positions you can do to help your volunteer fire department, right?

Chief Biviano: That’s right, Jack. They’ve got a, and I’ll speak to [Cortlandville] and Homer, as do many of the other, volunteer departments within the county.

We all operate basically the same. You have your members, as you mentioned, your interior members. You have your exterior members, you have some drivers, you have some fire police. Some departments have auxiliaries, so there’s, there’s facets for everybody. Throughout all the departments, and everybody brings something to the table in the fire service.

You know, you don’t always have to be the, the one that charges in the front door. You know, that job is just important as the person that’s outside helping set the ladders, get the truck there, set the pumps, even if it’s something small. As you know, your local department has an auxiliary, and I know a cold night like we’ve been having, you know, you bring a hot cup of coffee or hot chocolate to help the,

the members that are working get them hydrated and warmed up so they can continue their jobs.

Jack Eves: Well that’s great to hear. And obviously too, especially I know with the Homer Fire Department, even volunteers have the LOSAP program they can even enroll into, so it’s more than a [00:02:00] volunteer. You actually, you’re getting a thanks back to now.

Chief Riley: Well, so the role of being volunteers changed over the years given, whatever’s happening in life. So one way to give back for an incentive that we just did was the length of service awards program. We actually got the idea from Mike’s uncle Mahlon. [He] tried pitching this back when I first joined in 2009.

Funds weren’t there at that time for the village, but after talking with Mike and the Cortlandville Fire District, they had different, plans that define benefit and contribution. Long story short, it’s paid dividends for us in the Homer Fire Department, with response to personnel. It doesn’t really, per se, entice people to come in, but it’s more of a retention tool ’cause that’s also.

An issue within the volunteer organization is retention. People’s lives change. They have families, they have to move because of jobs and things like that. So it’s just another carrot to hang out there for members.

Jack Eves: Keep your members, you have as also working to recruit. And, when you’re joining a volunteer, obviously you’re gonna get the proper training as well, right?

Chief Biviano: The the county, countywide across Cortland County. Several years ago they [00:03:00] instituted a county training standard. So, and we’re fortunate that, you know, when I came up through the fire service, you know, some 25 years ago, I’d have to travel to Ithaca to take a class or I’d have to go to the fire academy to take a class.

All throughout the area. Not a lot of classes were held here in Cortland County. Part of it, as Jay mentioned, you know, male and Irish, Kevin Whitney, a bunch of the other guys, had a vision that started many years ago to build the training center. So any required trainings that you need to be a firefighter in Cortland County are all held right here in town.

The basic, firefighter training series is a hundred. 80 hours I believe it is now, give or take. And that’s for interior firefighters in the exterior or the BO class is about 55 to 60 hours. So it is a commitment, but everything is here right in town and close to home.

Jack Eves: And it’s worth it too ’cause you’re gonna be helping your neighbors and your community out as volunteer association. ’cause you know, you look at it, Courtland County, there’s only. One paid career fire department, and that’s the city of Cortland. And every other fire department in this county is strictly volunteer based.

Chief Riley: And that’s [00:04:00] for a lot of counties throughout the area, [including] Onondaga County. Obviously a, a county that size has to have that, but

I know Cayuga County just has Auburn, Tompkins just has Ithaca. So a lot of the surrounding areas are all volunteer based and you’re not just joining. To become a firefighter, you’re joining an organization to be part of a family. And that’s one thing that we implement in our respective organizations is bring your kids down.

You know, bring your spouses down. We have dinners for our people. It’s just trying to make it a community event as well. I know in the Village of Homer, everything we do is community-based, so we work well with the community as a whole. So if it’s something that you’re thinking about doing, it’s a good way to get back to community, but it’s also a good way to meet people in the local area that have the same common goal to helping each other.

Jack Eves: That’s great to know. And, you know, someone who’s listening right now and is curious, what can they do to, let’s say, reach out for the Homer Fire Department if they wanna learn more information?

Chief Riley: We have a Facebook page, Homer Fire Department. You can reach out there. We’re always posting things that we’re doing, whether it be, calls that we’ve responded to, we’re having chicken barbecues.

The field days is a big, [00:05:00] big thing that we advertise there, as well as we just had Winter Fest. So that, that’s always posted on there, what we’re doing. Coming down 45 South Main Street. Knock on the door, meet, meet the the people at the day room table, have a cup of coffee. Talk to them, see if it’s something you’re interested in.

Grab an application or just call 607 749 3121 and just have a conversation. It starts with there the hardest part’s getting through the door. Once a person works up that curb as you get through the door, then it’s all over from there and we can take, take it from there and try to get that intoxicating atmosphere for the individual.

Jack Eves: That’s really good to know. And Chief Biviano, I’m guessing it’s the same way, you know, you can reach out to your guys’ Facebook page, which is C-ville Fire Department.

Chief Biviano: Yep, that is correct. We’re both on, Facebook and Instagram. And as Chief Riley mentioned, you know, come down and knock on the door. With ours, our setup’s a little bit different in that we’re not, you know, in the village center.

But feel free. Tuesday nights is the best night to catch us. We, it’s our drill night. It’s our meeting night. Okay. It’s our happening night. So if anybody’s interested on Tuesday nights, come knock on the door, ring the doorbell. Six o’clock. Usually people filter in. If you see cars in the parking lot, you know [00:06:00] you’re driving by and see a couple cars ring the door.

We’ll be happy to meet you. We’ll get you an application, give you a tour, and, get you going from there.

Chief Riley: And it’s not just the Homer in the Ville Fire departments, it’s every fire department in Cortland County or even in at whatever county you’re listening in. They always need volunteers. We have 12 [departments].

Fire departments in this county and everybody needs members. And no matter what walks of life, so go out to anyone. It doesn’t have to be Homer or Ville. It could be wherever you’re living in your jurisdiction. If you have and wonder how to reach out to a certain fire department, I’m sure that you, Jack, have a good way of getting ahold of somebody of that nature to be able to point them in the right direction or reach out to the Village Fire page or the Homer Fire page and we’ll steer you guys in the right direction because it’s a, it’s a community.

It’s not just the Homer Fire Department, Cortlandville Fire Department, whatever have you. To fire community. And, it speaks volumes to the county that we have and the training that we do and the standard that we set. So we all talk to each other. We’re all a family as in a sense as that as well.

Jack Eves: No, that’s, that’s great to hear.

And yes, definitely, you know, the outreach for that. Every department [00:07:00] looking for volunteers. Chief Riley, chief Biviano is anything else you’d like to add?

Chief Biviano: Yeah, if you’re thinking about joining, you know, stop down to your local fire station and, say hi and set that New Year’s resolution.

Jack Eves: Guys, it’s always great speaking with you here in the studio. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedules to speak with me.

Chief Riley: Thank you, Jack.

Chief Biviano: Thanks, Jack.

Jack Eves: For X101, I’m Jack Eves.