And then there are the PTAs, the town government boards and the fire department ambulance corps.
"Volunteers on fire and ambulance corps tend to be lower on the income scale, but they provide a totally vital service that is critical for the vitality of towns," said Jonathan F. P. Rose, president of the Affordable Housing Development Corporation in Katonah.
After Ghane moved to Missouri, in 1992, to take a job with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the corps fired him less than a year later.
In a show of progress this week, the corps fired up all of the pumps at the new gates at the mouth of the 17th Street Canal and showed that the full pumping capacity of more than 9,000 cubic feet per second of water had been achieved.
He serves as a volunteer for the Irvington fire department and ambulance corps, and through Fuffi, holds annual fund-raisers for local charities.
The system is designed to transmit emergency health notices dealing with anything from food poisoning to anthrax and bio-terrorism from Trenton to local health officials, police and fire departments and ambulance corps.
Mr. Vietri said that four months after the close of public comment on the environmental study for the Fire Island project, the corps had still not received state position papers or a financial commitment.
