Editor's Note: East Meadow Patch requested editorials from each of the candidates for fire commissioner.
Scott Farber is a 41-year-old single parent of a 10-year-old daughter who attends McVey Elementary School. He is life-long resident of East Meadow who graduated from East Meadow High School in 1989.
Farber attended Nassau Community College for Criminal Justice and Business Management.
He is a retired police officer from the Suffolk County Police Department who was an Instructor Coordinator of the Suffolk County Police Academy's Emergency Medical Training Program and was responsible for preparing annual budget and purchase and procurement.
While with the Suffolk County Police Department, he was decorated with the Exceptional Meritorious Award for saving a victim pinned under a boat trailer.
In August 1996, Farber's patrol car was struck by 60,000 pound garbage truck. The accident lacerated his liver and he spent four weeks in a medically induced coma, where he received 250 pints of blood products and spent a year in rehabilitation. He returned to work in September 1997 and was awarded The Theodore Roosevelt Award, which is given to officers who have returned to duty after a protracted injury or illness.
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He joined the East Meadow Fire Department in May 1991 and actively served as a firefighter and paramedic for 21 years. He was a company officer for seven years, including two terms as captain.
Farber established the first controlled substance program for an EMS agency in Nassau County, allowing ambulances to carry Valium for seizure patients and Morphine for cardiac and burn patients. He also established one of the first public access defibrillation programs, equipping all pieces of apparatus with life saving AED's and have been training members in CPR and AED for more than 15 years.
He served as a member of the fire prevention committee, was senior advisor for the department's Junior Explorer Program and currently serves as the East Meadow Fire Department's EMS Coordinator and Training Officer, Exposure Control Officer and Controlled Substance Agent.
Farber also currently works part-time as a paramedic instructor with the Nassau County Fire-Police EMS Academy, located at Nassau University Medical Center.
"Emergency medical calls have become a bulk of the workload that we do here in East Meadow," Farber said. "With the number of senior housing, assisted living, and nursing facilities we cover, that workload continues to increase. As a paramedic, I am the first commissioner in the history of our department who possesses that level of expertise. This, combined with my knowledge as a firefighter, my experience in budget and finance and the many years of proven leadership and dedication, I feel makes me the ideal candidate for this position. I hope the residents of East Meadow agree."
