Rockland County, NY – Day: Comparing Fire Safety At Local Yeshivos To Failing County Building Is “Apples And Oranges”

    9

    The entrance of Sain Building, located on New Hempstead Road shows a roped off staircase that is deemed hazardous (Sandy Eller/VINnews.com)Rockland County, NY – After weeks of taking local yeshivos to task for their lax attitude towards local fire codes, a news report has surfaced faulting Rockland County Executive Ed Day for having neglected fire safety in a government building that houses county employees.

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    The report, which aired Tuesday on News 12, showed the crumbling interior of the Sain Building, located on New Hempstead Road just across the street from the Rockland County Courthouse and Day’s office. The building is home to the Rockland County Office of Tourism, County Auditor, Tax Office, Drug Court, and Finance, Budget, Personnel and Insurance departments.

    In a VIN News interview, Day said that after finding out one time too many about issues in county government that were carryovers from the previous administration that he knew nothing about, he called a meeting with county department heads and made it clear that he needed to be made aware of any and all problems immediately.

    As a result of that meeting, the head of the county safety department told Day that the last inspection performed at the Sain Building had taken place in 2008. All inspections at the facility were suspended at that time by former county executive Scott Vanderhoef for financial reasons, said Day.

    While there is no requirement for county office buildings to file fire safety reports, Day ordered an inspection of the Sain Building. The most recent one, dated May 16, 2016, listed numerous problems, including stairways lacking labels to assistant employees and first responders, smoke detectors that exceeded their 10 year life span, residential type smoke detectors in the commercial building, cases of water blocking exits, several exit lights that were missing or had burned out bulbs, improperly operating emergency lights, exposed steel structure beans that were not fireproofed, water damaged rebar in the basement and a “very antiquated” fire alarm system that lacked smoke and heat detection.

    “The building is challenged,” said Day, who said that some of the “very minor” fire violations have already been corrected.

    “It just in very, very poor shape,” said Day. “Our people are not unsafe, it’s just not an ideal place to work.”

    Day said that the situation at the Sain Building is different than that at local yeshivos, where administrators have full say over operations. Day said that he has pushed hard to have county employees relocated to a different facility but has been blocked at every turn by the Democratic-controlled legislature.

    “I’m in fiscal limbo here right now,” said Day. “We have tried to do some of this with existing resources. We cannot do the major work. Without the capital project, our employees are stuck there.”

    Day issued a challenge to those who pounced gleefully on the report of disrepair at the county building, calling him a hypocrite.

    “If they are truly concerned about the safety of my employees like I am concerned about the children in their community, I would suggest they speak to their legislators in Ramapo and tell them to move this bill so those employees can be safer. If they are true to their word, I would suspect that they would do that.”

    Copy of the inspection of the Sain Building on May, 2016


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group


    9 Comments
    Most Voted
    Newest Oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    misslydia128
    misslydia128
    7 years ago

    A yiddishe kup. Don’t fix your safety violations because someone else also has some.

    ActualJew
    ActualJew
    7 years ago

    Dissembling on the part of the haredim: we do not need to protect our children or allow government into our schools because your place is messy too. This is who has 10 kids and expects us to pay (as taxpayers and tzedakah givers). Nebach

    kenyaninwhitehouse
    kenyaninwhitehouse
    7 years ago

    Yiddisha children lives matter. Day has the right intentions, he remembers when in the 50’s and 60’s Rockland County was calm and peaceful not it resembles downtrodden areas of Brooklyn.

    7 years ago

    This reminds me of those who protest that the government shouldn’t persecute frum child molesters because the secular world has plenty of it’s own child molters to worry about.

    7 years ago

    The arrogance of this Bastard to blame the building condition on the constituents? He is such a bald faced bigot, and VIN did nothing to challenge his comments. Must be as bigoted Ed Day himself. Which is proven by the previous comments.

    I have seen the schools in Ramapo, they are in way better condition than the County Building. And they passed inspections which are much harsher than the one that was done by Day’s employee on his own property.

    Know that he crows that he will absolutely not sell this building to religious Jews. On his Facebook page. DO not start blaming the conditions on the Jews. What does it mean he was unaware of the condition there if he has been marketing it and it is across the street from his offices? What lousy Urinalists on VIN, if they did not point out his lie to his face.