Volunteer firefighters in a small western Connecticut community say they have voted to cease providing services to their town at the end of the month.
The Morris Volunteer Fire Department announced Tuesday in a post on its Facebook page that members had "voted to cease providing fire, rescue, and EMS services for the Town of Morris effective June 30." The MVFD has been in operation for over 75 years.
The announcement cited a "toxic working relationship" with town administrators as the main reason services would cease and said members also voted "to establish an irrevocable trust for the benefit of Morris residents."
MVFD President Virginia Steinway told The Connecticut Post that the department and the Board of Selectmen spent more than a year trying to work out a contract and that a recent decision to not fully fund state-mandated annual physicals was the final straw.
“It is an unfitting ending to a department that gave 75 years of selfless volunteerism to our town,” Morris First Selectman Tom Weik said in a statement Tuesday.
Weik said a plan is in place to form a new all-volunteer department "with different people who have a lot of experience" that will eventually take over fire services and that mutual aid from surrounding communities will protect the town until that time.
"We're sure that there will be much negative publicity around our departure," the MVFD said in its post, "but we can hold our heads high knowing that we gave tirelessly of ourselves for the betterment of our community."
