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A combination of budget cuts and development will leave the city without any fireboats based on the Hudson River waterfront by the end of the year, city officials said yesterday.
The city took the first step yesterday when it took Marine 2, a fireboat based near West 14th Street, out of service as part of $1.4 million in budget cuts the Dinkins administration requested from the Fire Department.
The closure leaves only one city fireboat in service, Marine 1, temporarily based at Pier A in the Battery, to cover the Hudson River from lower Manhattan to Bronx-Westchester border.
But, according to Lee Silberstein, spokesman for the city Public Development Corporation, Marine 1 is scheduled to be moved to Brooklyn before the end of the year to make way for a $20-million restaurant and visitor's center.
"We...