Bill Williams is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media a section of Greenport's Becraft Firehouse has been ordered closed by the town code enforcement officer, citing structural damage. The firehouse is located at 257 County Route 14. The part of the building closed by code enforcement houses the fire department’s tanker truck, so the department has moved the truck to the Livingston Fire Department, more than five miles away. “It’s definitely affecting response times,” Fire Chief John Onufrychuk Jr. said. “Firefighters need to drive roughly eight minutes south to Livingston and eight minutes back north with the truck. If the call is in the northern end of Greenport, that’s another eight to 10 minutes of response time,” the chief said. In December, large cracks were found in the cement block outer walls. “If you push hard enough on the front wall, where the garage door is located, you can see it move,” Onufrychuk said. There is also water damage above the ceilings in the fire truck bays. Emergency repairs are slated to begin soon, but those repairs will not last forever, the chief said. The company is exploring a plan to build a new firehouse on the site, a proposal similar to the $1.7 million plan rejected by fire district voters in November 2011 that would have added a three-bay garage adjacent to the existing building. The Becraft station building was built in 1931. A single truck bay was added in the early 1960s and a second was added in the 1970s, Onufrychuk said. Greenport is the second busiest fire district in Columbia County, logging close to 250 calls in 2022. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.