Poquonnock Bridge Board Member Wants To Cut Fire District Budget In Half

A member of the Poquonnock Bridge Fire District in Groton wants to cut the department’s budget by 50 percent in the coming year.

Alan Ackley, who was recently re-elected to the fire district board, said taxpayers in Poquonnock Bridge are paying more than their neighbors for fire protection, and that’s not right.

Ackely said he and other board members plan to direct the chief to cut the cost of business, with details of the request to come in the future.

Chris Clark, president of the board for Poquonnock Bridge, said there's no way the department will be able to absorb that kind of cut and provide the same service, or prevent layoffs of firefighters. The district has 26 firefighters, including four captains; half the budget is salary, Clark said.

Clark said he couldn't comment on specifics of the cuts until he sees the plan.

The fire district board also recently voted to rescind a contract that would have given firefighters annual pay raises of 3 percent for ten years.

Ackley said he knows the union won’t like the change, but his priority is lowering taxes.

“They can (complain) and moan all they want but it’s not going to do them any good, because they don’t control the purse strings,” he said.

Groton has nine independent fire districts that provide fire protection and emergency services to  the various districts. Poquonnock Bridge is the largest of the nine and is a career fire department, so it has paid staff rather than volunteers.

It charges a tax rate of 5.9 mills to residents, the highest tax rate of the nine. The current operating budget is just over $4.6 million.

“. . .The question asked to us was why do we have to pay so much more than other districts?” Ackley said in a prepared statement he read Sept. 13. “The short answer is, ‘We don’t.’”

Ackley said about 75 percent of the department’s calls in 2011 were for emergency medical services, rescue service or false alarms, which the police and ambulance already respond to.

He said the district would no longer provide this duplicate service.

Ackley said the board also plans will also enact a hiring freeze. He said board members would lobby the town council members and Representative Town Meeting to reduce the costs of pensions and healthcare.

“. . . This fire district will be run more like a business than an entitlement,” he said in the statement. “No longer will a complicit union executive committee be allowed to ram a contract down the throats of the hard working people paying their salaries without any concert for the financial welfare of the taxpayers.”