Chief Says PBFD Budget Jeopardizes Public Safety

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include comments from Poquonnock Bridge Fire District president Alan Ackley.

By Jessie King and Ellyn Santiago

Todd Paige, the chief of Poquonnock Bridge Fire Department, says that proposed changes to the district as a result of financial woes could “decimate public safety.” 

Voters in the district recently approved a the $3.5 million budget and the fire board is considering closing the Fort Hill Fire Station. 

Paige told reporters at The Day that the proposed cuts to the fire department’s budget are too deep. Even if he laid off firefighters to meet the budget those savings would be eaten up by the overtime he’d have to schedule to meet staffing requirements. He also said that closing the Fort Hill Road fire station would increase emergency response time from 4.25 minutes to 8 or 9 minutes. 

The fire board proposed a higher budget, which was rejected  by voters and Paige says he can’t operate the department on the $3.5 million budget and meet all of the legal and financial obligations, according to the report in The Day, including the union contract, insurance, utilities for the fire station and fees for fire hydrants. 

To save money, the fire board is considering closing the Fort Hill station and installing a volunteer fire department. The fire board will meet July 1 to figure out the next move. 

Following a request for a comment, fire district president Alan Ackley said Paige "seems to be mistaken."

"It is not a question as to whether or not he feels he can run the department on $3.5 million. It is his obligation as well as the District Committee to do exactly that with the funds that have been entrusted to us by the taxpayers," Ackley said in a statement he emailed to Patch. "(Paige) may mean at the current spending levels he can't, but with the budget that will be forthcoming, he will be obligated to do exactly that."

Ackley said the fire district must look to the future.

"Past history is exactly that.  Change must come to the fire district because the taxpayer's are tapped out," he said. "Just as the public, in this rough economy, has had to adjust their budgets, so too will we within the Poquonnock Bridge Fire District.  Public safety will never be at risk, now and in the future , and to an informed public scare tactics will no longer work."

Ackley said the proposal to close the Fort Hill station "is only one of the many cuts that will be coming."

"Thanks to mutual aid and a resurgence in a volunteer complement, the public will enjoy safety and economy. I am only one of nine commissioners that sit on this district and I have full confidence in their decisions to prudently spend the taxpayers money," he said.  "Within the next few weeks we will be tackling all the issues before us and I expect the taxpayers to be well served."

Click here to read the full report in The Day.