To:
Mayor Jonathan A. Siegel
Members of the Board of Trustees
Village of Irvington, NY
c/o Village Hall
85 Main Street
Irvington, NY 10533

cc:
Katie Bugna, Clerk-Treasurer
Charles Hessler, Village Administrator
David Dowd, Chief of Irvington Fire Department

Date: October 4, 2025

We, the undersigned residents and property owners of the Village of Irvington, respectfully request that the Board of Trustees review and revise the policy governing the sounding of the fire horn located atop Village Hall.

Background & Rationale

1. Frequent, Non-Emergency Activation. The fire horn currently sounds for nearly every department call, yet only a small percentage involve confirmed structural fires. Most calls are false alarms, carbon monoxide alerts, or other non-fire incidents. These do not require a community-wide alarm.
2. Public Disturbance. Because the horn activates at all hours—including late nights and early mornings—it repeatedly disrupts sleep, startles children and pets, and reduces residents’ quality of life.
3. Redundancy of Notification. Modern paging, radio, and mobile alert systems already ensure firefighters are notified promptly and frequently. The horn’s routine use adds little operational value while creating unnecessary disturbance.
4. Preserving Purpose. The horn’s original role—to alert volunteers before digital systems existed or during communication outages—is understood and appreciated. But using it for every dispatch diminishes its purpose and imposes needless disturbance. If historical preservation is the aim, sounding the alarm at noon should suffice.

Requested Actions

To balance public safety with community wellbeing, we respectfully request that the Village adopt one of the following policy changes:

• Option A (Preferred): Stop routine use of the fire horn entirely, optional ceremonial usage for mid day (12pm) notification is optional to preserve historical charm.
• Option B (Alternative): Limit the horn’s use strictly to confirmed structural fires or large-scale emergencies where public awareness is necessary, optional ceremonial usage for mid day (12pm) notification is optional to preserve historical charm.

This preserves the Fire Department’s readiness with modern notificaiton systems that already in place, while minimizing disruption to the community.

Supporting Evidence

• Department call logs show that only a minor fraction of calls involve active fires, yet the horn sounds for nearly all.
• Residents across multiple neighborhoods report frequent awakenings and noise disturbance.
• Several nearby Westchester communities—including Tarrytown, Ardsley, and Hastings-on-Hudson—have already reduced or eliminated routine fire horn use without compromising safety or response time.

Benefits to the Village

• Improved peace and quality of life for residents
• Maintained volunteer response readiness through digital alerts
• Enhanced trust and goodwill between residents and the Village
• Alignment with modern emergency communication standards

In Closing

We are grateful for the dedication of our volunteer firefighters and support their mission fully. Our goal is simply to ensure that Irvington’s alert systems are modern, effective, and considerate of the community.

We respectfully request that the Village Board of Trustees place this item on an upcoming meeting agenda and direct a review of the current horn policy.

Signed,
Residents of the Village of Irvington, NY