By Daniel Drainville
The Day
NORWICH, Conn. — The chiefs of the Yantic, Taftville, Occum and Laurel Hill volunteer fire departments and their lawyer met Monday with city officials for the first time since Yantic Fire Engine Co. No. 1 was shut down by the city.
The closed meeting was held virtually.
| MORE: Ending ‘us vs. them’ in the firehouse
In a statement issued afterwards by the city’s public relations firm, City Manager John Salomone said the city once again” offered the Yantic department a clear path toward reinstatement through a new operational contract.
He and City Fire Chief Sam Wilson did not respond to a question of whether the “new operational contract” referred to the fire services agreement that was sent to the department on Feb. 9, leading to the current shutdown.
Last month, the city shut the Yantic department down — cutting off its city funding, removing it from the 911 alert system and repossessing its city-owned fire trucks — after it failed to sign a fire services agreement to comply with Unified Command.
Unified Command is a policy that was announced by Salomone and Wilson and August 2025, and then implemented by Wilson using executive orders. The policy created a new operational command structure with Wilson at the top, and standardized training, communications and emergency response protocols for both paid and volunteer fire services in the city.
The Yantic, Taftville, Occum and Laurel Hill departments, have joined together to sue the city over implementation of Unified Command.
In his statement, Salomone said that as discussions continue with volunteers, it is important for residents to know that Yantic is being staffed around the clock by members of the city department. Since the shutdown, the city has operated a Yantic substation at the city’s public works department. He said the substation is staffed at all times by a city fire lieutenant and two paid firefighters, at an estimated cost of $100,000 a month.
“The City and its Fire Department have taken extra measures to ensure all public safety and fire needs are being met, including allocating 24/7 coverage by full-time career staff to actively deliver any needed response to the affected regions,” he said.
Salomone said the city will “continue to work diligently to resolve this matter, with the overarching goal of establishing consistent standards of coverage and care across all districts.”
“The city can spin it however they like,” Mark Kovack, the attorney for the volunteers, wrote in a text message Monday. “But the bottom line is, Yantic remains shuttered to the detriment of public safety and the material expense of the taxpayers. And no win for anybody.”
Salomone declined to comment further on the meeting but echoed his comment from his statement, that there is no public safety concern.
“Response times to emergencies have been significantly shorter than any response that Yantic has responded to in the past,” he said.
To that effect, Salomone said the city would be willing to provide response times to prove his claim.
Justin May of Gaffney Bennett, the public relations firm hired by the four volunteer departments, issued a statement Monday saying the volunteers have indicated the city hasn’t done enough to address their concerns.
“While we remain committed to a constructive resolution, reinstatement of Yantic and the return of its apparatus were not meaningfully addressed, and concerns about potential shutdowns of the remaining volunteer departments remain unresolved,” the statement said. “Our position remains centered on establishing a lawful and sustainable structure that ensures operational authority is properly aligned with accountability and consistency with the City Charter.”
“We stand ready to continue discussions centered on transparency, fairness, and a solution that protects public safety and taxpayers alike, the statement said.
© 2026 The Day (New London, Conn.).
Visit www.theday.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
