Last Saturday the Milton Fire Department could not have asked for better weather for their annual Lobster & Clam Bake. The department ended up serving up 300 lobsters and 26 bushels of clams to family and friends of the department.

First Assistant Chief Gael Appler Jr. said the money they raise is used to pay for the bands at the parades the department attends, for donations they make to various charitable organizations in town and to help the town’s Economic Development and Milton Landing Citizens Committees, to name a few.

Appler said they have been fortunate with the weather, recalling that the year Hurricane Irene struck it happened three hours after they were done.

“We had a perfect day, we cleaned up and then it hit,” he said. “We’ve been lucky every time, knock on wood.”

Chief Stephen Kneeter described the weather as “perfect compared to what we had last week and the turnout, as always, has been spectacular.” He said the Department has the strong support of the public and the township.

“We get a nice humble crowd and they enjoy it. We have great music [All Too Real] and it’s great for the community to get together like this,” he said.

Chief Kneeter said the new two-story addition to the fire house, “has been working out very, very well. We’re able to get more storage, which we needed. We are also sharing an office for over twenty years, the Commissioners, the Social Officers and the Line Officers and by the regulations we need to follow, we’re supposed to have separate rooms. It all worked out well.”

3rd Assistant Chief Allan Koenig was in charge of the planning for the annual event.

“We’ve been selling around 270 to 300 tickets a year so we kind of hit our rhythm and we don’t sell more than 300,” he said.

Koenig said they used to drive up to Schenectady to get their lobsters and clams but in the last few years they’ve bought them locally from Sally’s Fish Market in Newburgh.

“He gets them from Maine or Canada, depending,” Koenig said.
Koenig said they increased their order of clams this year from 22 to 26 bushels, pointing out that, “people love their clams.”

Koenig said some of the money raised goes to assist the Milton Beautification Committee when they plant flowers throughout the town in the Spring. They also are in support the upcoming rehabilitation project for the southern pier at the Milton Landing Park.

“It trickles right back into the community,” he said.

Koenig, who also serves as a Town Councilman, said he is proud of the board for recently passing a resolution to bond money for the pier project. He and a few members of the fire department volunteered their time several years ago to fix the northern pier.

Koenig said they have nearly 40 active, on-scene firefighters in the department, with social members bringing them up to about 65 members. He said they are attracting a growing number of younger firefighters.

“It’s good to see; we’ve actually been blessed with a lot of young firefighters that are active on the fire scene. They are eager to learn and they’re taking their courses; they’re staying and really making a contribution. It’s a really good thing to see. Statewide and nationally our departments are seeing the crunch [and] we’ve really got a good core group of guys.”