EDITORIAL: On fire protection services, same old story in Norwich
Jul. 9—We have to ask: Why do they even bother? By "they," we mean members of the Norwich City Council.
The faces change but one thing remains the same — don't mess with the status quo of the volunteer fire departments.
Yet, over the decades, the councils have hired consultants to assess the status of firefighting in the city, to essentially tell them what they already know.
They know that rivalry and resentment between the paid Norwich Fire Department that protects the urban center and the five volunteer companies protecting the rest of the city leads to a lack of coordination and invites a tragic mistake.
They know Norwich has far more apparatus than a city its size needs, all of it paid for and maintained at taxpayer expense.
They know the special tax charged in the district protected by the paid department leads to excessive taxation there, inhibiting redevelopment of the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.
Consultants can sometimes provide elected leaders the cover to do what they know should be done. But time after time in Norwich, when consultants have returned with recommendations, the volunteer fire departments have howled their independence was being threatened — and the councils have buckled. It has happened again.
The chief recommendation of the latest consultant — the McGrath Consulting Group of Wonder Lake, Ill. — was to create the position of fire services director to provide better coordination, consistency and efficiency among the departments.
McGrath also pointed out the excessive amount of apparatus. Their report, however, did not go near the taxing unfairness issue, recognizing it as a political third rail.
No matter, even the most basic reform — the fire services director — has been ditched. Dust off the shelf for another dismissed consulting report, this one costing $81,000.
The council did approve an ordinance creating the director position on June 21. The volunteer chiefs then turned up the heat and, when the proposed budget got tight, the council opted not to fund the position. This past week, on a 4-2 vote, the council repealed the ordinance altogether. Shocking!
Aldermen Joseph DeLucia, chair of the Public Safety Committee, and Derell Wilson deserve credit for sticking with their support of the position even in a losing cause.
Now the council is dumping the mess in the lap of City Manager John Salomone, saying he needs to meet with the chiefs and fix this.
Maybe he can ask them to hire a consultant.
The Day editorial board meets regularly with political, business and community leaders and convenes weekly to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Tim Dwyer, Editorial Page Editor Paul Choiniere, Managing Editor Izaskun E. Larrañeta, staff writer Erica Moser and retired deputy managing editor Lisa McGinley. However, only the publisher and editorial page editor are responsible for developing the editorial opinions. The board operates independently from the Day newsroom.
