Goldens Bridge, NY – State Sen. Peter Harckham announced today that a $100,000 state grant was secured for new radio communications equipment purchased by the Goldens Bridge Fire District. The purchase of the new radios was necessary to align the Goldens Bridge Fire Department communications system with the new radio frequencies implemented by the dispatch center, known as 60 Control, of the Westchester County Department of Emergency Services.

Goldens Bridge Fire Commissioner and former Chief Robert Melillo initiated the grant application and worked closely with Sen. Harckham’s office to finalize the funding request. 

“Clear and efficient communications among first responders can be the difference between life and death in an emergency situation,” said Harckham. “I was proud to secure the grant funding to provide the Goldens Bridge Fire Department with a new set of radios to ensure effective lines of communication between members of the department and other first responders in the area.” 

Goldens Bridge Fire Commissioner Edward Brancati, Chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners of the Goldens Bridge Fire District, lauded Sen. Harckham’s continuous support for first responders and providing major assistance to the Fire District’s efforts of being fiscally responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. 

“On behalf of the District, Fire Department personnel, and community residents and businesses, we are extremely grateful to Sen. Harckham for this $100,000 state grant because it supports critical new equipment essential to emergency response and to the safety of our Firefighters and the community they serve,” said Brancati. “In today’s economic environment, it is important to strike a balance between fiscal responsibility and, at the same time, properly equipping our firefighters with every apparatus and tool necessary to carry out the mission of responding, serving and protecting when called upon. Senator Harckham has enabled us to achieve both. We have made a necessary investment without burdening the taxpayers with this cost.

In addition to the new radio communications system being in sync with the dispatch center, Commissioner Melillo noted that the technology is also vital to cross-communications with other emergency services agencies and is essential to the communications infrastructure and emergency response operations of the Goldens Bridge Fire Department. 

“The new radio equipment enables us to provide rapid, efficient, and coordinated emergency services, which enhance the safety of our firefighters and the residents, businesses, institutions, and others in the community in their time of need,” said Melillo. 

“The mobile radios provide a secure and reliable method of maintaining internal and external communications that is critical during emergency operations, and they ensure coordination at emergency scenes,” said Goldens Bridge Fire Chief Albert Melillo. “Fire departments across the county had to upgrade their systems in order to operate under the new radio frequencies and communicate with the dispatch center.” 

The state grant secured by Sen. Harckham covered the purchase of personal firefighter pagers, mobile radios, a base station radio with a power source independent of the power grid, and a fire station radio, which serves as a reliable, supplemental notification alert system to emergency calls. The latter piece of equipment, Chief Melillo said, is particularly significant since “we are a rural fire district with sometimes unreliable mobile network coverage. It is an additional layer of vital backup support to our communications technology if other forms of communication fail.” 

The Goldens Bridge Fire Department and Fire District cover the entire hamlet of Goldens Bridge in the Town of Lewisboro and small swaths of the towns of Somers and North Salem. Besides local and state roads, Goldens Bridge firefighters respond to vehicle accidents, fires and emergencies on a portion of Interstate 684. Through the month of July 2026, the Department was on a record pace of emergency response, averaging more than one call a day.