The Providence Journal
COVENTRY, R.I. — A week after residents of the Coventry Fire District voted to dissolve their financially crippled fire department rather than pay any more tax, anger and uncertainty swept through the district.
Much of that anger was directed toward Frank Palin, the chairman of the district’s volunteer board of directors, who six months ago as a resident led a revolt to cut the district’s budget, and who Monday night was left in the unenviable position of making a last desperate appeal to the Town Council for $100,000 to help keep the district afloat for another month.
The council wasn’t about to offer a life ring.
“I am so sick and tired of hearing this is the responsibility of the Town Council,” said Town Council member Kerry L. McGee, after Palin declared that public safety is at stake.
McGee asserted the independent district “could be alive” today if not for Palin’s actions. It is not the council’s job to save the district now from “poor management,” he said.
His words brought a round of applause from those in the council chamber.
An hour later, Palin faced 70 fire district residents at the Club Jogues social club and some of the same bitterness and accusations. People wanted to know how much it will cost to dismantle the 16-man fire department? Do board members seriously think surrounding districts with their own financial troubles will give them fire coverage? Where will fire protection come from? Will they end up paying interest and penalties on the bills the district is already not paying?
There were few immediate answers.
Palin said before the council’s meeting he knew that his chances of asking for a town grant were slim. (The council took no action on his request.)
Privately, Town Council President Glenford Shibley put it bluntly: “The district’s own residents voted against giving any more money, so how in blue blazes would any council give it to them now? It wouldn’t be right politically or financially.”
Sought cushion
Palin had hoped the $100,000 would provide a cushion where the department could still provide fire and ambulance service for the next five or six weeks while investigating whether the town’s other three fire districts could respond to fires in their district after July.
The district’s board will now have to consider letting go some or all its firefighters, said Palin, though he said he’d like to maintain critically important ambulance service. But in light of last week’s vote, it must also consider asking the General Assembly to dissolve the district.
“We may go into receivership, but the receivership will be to close the district and protect us from creditors” said Palin, and not to reorganize as the Central Coventry Fire District is now doing since district residents voted to dissolve the department.
Last week firefighters agreed to $350,000 in concessions to help the department stay operational for six months. But those concessions were contingent on approval of the supplement tax increase.
As he saw it, council president Shibley, himself a resident in the Coventry Fire District who voted in favor of the supplemental tax increase, said the district now has only two choices: dissolve entirely or seek state receivership like the Central Coventry Fire District.
“When the time is right, I would like to see one fire department for the town of Coventry,” said Shibley. But not before both the Coventry and Central Coventry fire districts are again on solid financial footing and the town has studied the costs of merging districts with separate contracts and equipment.
“Only then can people have an intelligent referendum in front of them to consider,” said Shibley. “Until then, no one would know what they were voting on.”
One department “sounds simple,” said Shibley. But when you start considering pooling the debt all districts owe and their labor contracts, the cost “could be astronomical,” he said.
Origin of districts
Rhode Island’s fire districts trace their origins to the 19th century and the need to have fire service close to working mills and shore communities, as in Westerly and Charlestown. The state still has about 42 districts, each created by the General Assembly, spread out in 14 of the state’s 39 communities, says the state Division of Municipal Finance.
Most fire districts are in Washington and Providence counties. Coventry is the exception, being in Kent County. Most districts have their own fire houses and equipment but some have financial arrangements with neighboring districts. About 20 percent of state residents live in towns with fire districts.
Palin argued Monday night that the Town Council was abdicating its responsibility to provide adequate public safety by not helping the Coventry Fire District.
And he said there was precedent for such relief. A few years ago the council gave the Central Fire District $300,000 when its financial crisis first surfaced.
“That was a different Town Council,” said Sibley. “I would have disagreed with it at that time.”
The town is still trying to recoup that $300,000, he said. Town taxpayers should not have to allocate “money to go to a private district.”
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