New York Laws
Article 11 - Fire, Fire Alarm and Fire Protection Districts
179 - Special District Elections to Vote Upon Appropriations.

(b) To purchase or install an adequate fire alarm system for the fire
district, or to make necessary additions thereto.
(c) To lease, purchase, construct, reconstruct, alter, repair or equip
suitable buildings for the preservation, protection and storing of
vehicles, apparatus and equipment of the fire district and for the
social and recreational use of the firefighters and residents of the
district, and purchase the necessary lands therefor.
(d) To expend in any one fiscal year, or to expend annually, an amount
in excess of the amount authorized by subdivision eighteen of section
one hundred seventy-six of this chapter, as amended from time to time,
to be expended annually without the adoption of a proposition therefor
for any of the purposes authorized by the provisions of this article. If
the proposition authorizes an annual expenditure, it shall state a
maximum amount which may be expended annually in excess of the amount
authorized by subdivision eighteen of section one hundred seventy-six of
this chapter, as amended from time to time, and such amount may not be
exceeded thereafter unless authorized at a fire district election. If a
proposition authorizes an annual expenditure, the authorization shall
continue in effect until changed by vote of a district election.
(e) To purchase permanent or temporary rights to take water from
cisterns, wells and bodies of water and water-courses within the fire
district for the purposes, and subject to the limitations, set forth in
subdivision twelve-a of section one hundred seventy-six of this chapter.
(f) To purchase or construct fire suction pools in bodies of water and
water-courses, fire cisterns and fire wells, including necessary pipes,
pumps, hydrants and other facilities in connection therewith, and to
purchase and lease necessary real property and rights in land and water
therefor, for the purposes, and subject to the limitations, set forth in
subdivision twelve-a of section one hundred seventy-six of this chapter.
2. Any sum authorized to be expended, pursuant to subdivision one of
this section, shall be raised by tax and shall be spent only during the
fiscal year for which such tax is to be levied but nothing contained in
this section shall be construed to prevent the financing in whole or in
part, pursuant to the local finance law, of expenditures pursuant to
section one hundred seventy-six of this chapter. If the proposition is
approved at an election held in any fiscal year after September
twentieth, or after October twentieth in the case of fire districts
located wholly within the county of Westchester, the proposition shall
not become effective for the purpose of levying taxes until the first
day of September of the fiscal year succeeding the fiscal year in which
such proposition is approved.
3. Such petition shall be signed, and acknowledged or proved in the
same manner as a deed to be recorded, or authenticated in the manner
provided by the election law for authentication of nominating petitions,
by resident taxpayers owning taxable real property aggregating at least
one-quarter of the assessed valuation of all the taxable real property
of the district owned by resident taxpayers, as such valuations appear
upon the latest completed assessment roll of said town. Notice of such
special district election shall be given in the same manner as provided
herein for annual district elections. The special election shall be held
on a Tuesday, provided that such date is not a public holiday, and shall

be conducted and scheduled in a manner that maximizes voter
participation. The polls shall remain open for the receipt of ballots
from six o'clock in the evening to nine o'clock in the evening and such
additional consecutive hours prior thereto as the board of fire
commissioners may determine. The secretary of the fire commissioners
shall prepare the ballots which shall separately state and number each
proposition to be voted upon.
4. Every elector of the town who shall be a registered voter of the
town and who shall have resided in the district for the period of thirty
days next preceding a special or annual fire district election shall be
qualified to vote upon such proposition.