Residents Protest Fire Department Changes in Norwich, CT
The Day, New London, Conn.
(TNS)
Norwich— In the parking lot of Old Tymes Restaurant Tuesday afternoon, volunteer firefighters and their supporters demanded the resignation of City Manager John Salomone and City Fire Chief Sam Wilson.
The group raised concerns over public safety and an increase in taxes related to the city’s shut down of the Yantic Fire Engine Co. No. 1, after the volunteer department refused to sign on to the city’s Unified Command policy.
The policy, announced last summer by Wilson and Salomone, aimed to unify the city's fire services, by decreasing fragmentation between the paid and volunteer staff. In addition to establishing a new command structure with Wilson at the top, the directive standardized training, communications and emergency response protocols for both paid and volunteer fire services.
The policy implementation is now the subject of a lawsuit from four of the city’s five volunteer companies – Yantic, Taftville, Laurel Hill and Occum – questioning Wilson and Salomone’s authority to establish the policy.
Around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, as people arrived and exited their cars, Laurel Hill Deputy Chief Pete Clark told them that came they had the choice of two groups of signs – ones urging the removal of Salomone, and others urging the removal of Wilson.
Robin Sieczkowski, who organized the protest, said Salomone and Wilson have shown an unwillingness to yield, and listen to criticisms of the policy.
“Some of the signs say that they need to go. We just – it’s enough. Salomone is recklessly spending our tax dollars. You know, nobody answers questions. Conveniently, Salomone’s on vacation this week.”
Another sign read “We demand transparency with ‘our’ tax $,” seeking an explanation from the city on protesters’ frequent criticism that the decision to unify the fire services was foisted on the volunteer departments without seeking taxpayer approval, but is now costing residents of the city tax district more.
About 20 others held their signs up for passing cars. Along with Clark, the protest was attended by Alderman Peter Nystrom, frequent City Council commenter and radio host Pietro “Rocky” Camardella, three-time state Rep. candidate Mark Adams.
Sieczkowski said her husband, a firefighter with the East Great Plain department, the only one currently not suing city, has been a volunteer for more than 30 years, so she said she is “not oblivious to what’s going on.”
“There are ways we can save money,” she said. “There truly are. But closing our volunteer fire departments are not one of them. They save us millions of dollars every year.”
“We want to demand transparency for where our tax dollars are going, and why we’re not being adequately manned for safety reasons for all of us taxpayers that pay for these fire departments that didn’t want to close in the first place,” Sieczkowski said. “These are our neighbors. We’re suing our neighbors with our tax dollars that we didn’t even ask for in the first place. We voted no to this. So like, why are we doing it?”
Sieczkowski argued voters in 2023 struck down a similar but less-strict policy known as “auto-aid,” which required the city department to respond as mutual aid to any call within volunteer districts. The policy was later instituted after the volunteer departments agreed to go along with it.
Sieczkowski said the problem now is that paid firefighers are working 24 and 48-hour shifts, and are going to be exhausted.
“That’s when accidents and mistakes happen,” she said. “Someone’s going to get killed. It’s going to be unnecessary and it’s just terrible.”
Sieczkowski said she’s not against mutual aid, or for the paid and volunteer departments to work and train together. In fact, she said she thinks that’s necessary.
“The problem is, it was done with zero respect,” she said. “And you can’t take six departments, and put one chief who’s lateral with them in charge of them. It doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work. So, I mean, get us a fire commissioner. Put him in charge of the fire budget and the fire chiefs, and let the fire commissioner deal with them on a lateral level. There's sensible solutions that they’re just not even bothering to explore or look at. There’s sensible solutions that they’re just not even bothering to explore, or look at. Because it’s much easier to just spend our tax dollars and let them do whatever they want.”
Andrew Daigle, a firefighter for 20 years with Laurel Hill Volunteer Fire Co. #6, said he was at the protest to support the volunteers and the taxpayers. He lives in the City Consolidated tax district, which pays for the services of the full-time paid department. He and many others who live in that district now worry that with the paid department staffing Yantic’s district amid the shut down, his taxes will increase.
“It’s already increasing the cost now. Because they gotta pay them day-by-day,” he said.
Daigle said he attended the protest because the volunteers “save the taxpayers a lot of money.”
“That’s my strong belief. We do this to save taxpayers money. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to afford to live in Norwich. Which is getting tougher and tougher.”
He said urged the city to maintain the previous system.
“Leave it as is. Leave the charter as is,” he said. “The volunteer departments work well together. We work together with the city. It’s when they have a new chief come in and he wanted to change all the plans is when the issue started?”
In a statement from Yantic’s newly-hired PR firm, Yantic Chief Bobby Allen said the department appreciates the continued support from residents and those from surrounding communities, and remains committed to serving residents as it works toward solutions that “prioritize transparency, fiscal responsibility, and public safety while respecting the City Charter, the taxpayers, and the long tradition of volunteer service in our community.”
In a statement sent by the city’s newly-hired PR firm, Wilson said the city department is obligated to ensure safe, reliable and consistent fire and EMS coverage across the city.
Emergency response standards exist to protect our residents and our firefighters from unnecessary risk, and when a fire company fails to meet these basic baseline training and safety benchmarks, it is incumbent upon the Department to take action. We have and will continue to work collaboratively with any fire company that is out of compliance in order to resolve their safety issues and restore service to the standard that our citizens expect and deserve,” the statement said.
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