City of Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Click here to view Mayor Paul Dyster's 9/11 Niagara Falls Fire Department Memorial Tribute Video

Thanks very much Chief, and I want to thank everyone for joining us here today. I want to give a special thanks to U.S. Attorney William Hochul who has joined us here today. Thank you very much, Bill, for coming down to join us. As I stand here today as Mayor, I feel a deepening sense of responsibility to the young men and women of our Niagara Falls Fire Department. It’s only natural, because our department is getting younger. The senior people in the Niagara Falls Fire Department are people that I grew up with, people that are my peers. They were experts at their trade long before I got there as Mayor of the City of Niagara Falls. But if you look at the people lined up in uniform here today for the Niagara Falls Fire Department, you will see that over the course of the last few years we’ve brought in a new generation of Niagara Falls firefighters, and it has been my great honor to have been there to have the opportunity to swear them in.

 There is a kind of standard speech that I give during the swearing-in ceremony. Most of you have probably heard this so many times by now that you’re tired of hearing it. I want to talk to you a little bit about the spirit of that speech today, because I think it is important on this occasion.When I give that speech, I speak not just to those taking the oath, but to their families as well. By taking that oath, they have now entered into a new family: the family of the public safety services of the City of Niagara Falls. And on that occasion I make promises to them. I promise them that I will ensure that they have the absolutely best leaders that they could possibly have and I think I’ve done that. I’ve got great Chiefs and great senior officers in both the Police and Fire Departmentsthat do the best job, not only to create public safety for our citizens, but to ensure that every single one of our firefighters and police officers returns home safely at the end of their shift. I promised those families that we will give the absolute best training to their sons and daughters, so that they are prepared for whatever situations might come their wayknowing that there are some situations, I suppose, that you can never be prepared for. That’s one of the lessons of 9/11. And finally, I promise them that we will provide the absolute best equipment that we possibly can, in order to give them the best possible chance, not just of protecting us, but of protecting themselves, as they go about their very dangerous business every day. The one thing that I can’t promise them, or promise their families, is the thing that I would most like to be able to promise. That is, that they will return home safely at the end of every shift. That I simply can’t promise, because I would be lying. It is in the nature of the fire service that (continued on next page)  

Page 2, 3, Next          

   E-GOVERNMENT

View Community Calendar

Comments / Complaints / Feedback