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Waterford panel lets fire services director review draft report as resident urges repairs over $12M station plan
Summary
At a May 29 special meeting, Waterford's Fire Services Review Special Committee voted to have Fire Services Director Chris Haley formally review the draft of the committee's report (passed 4-0-1). Resident Ursula Moreshead urged repairing existing stations and questioned a proposed $12 million rebuild, suggesting use of $2.9 million in renovation funds for an outside consultant.
The Fire Services Review Special Committee in Waterford voted May 29 to give Fire Services Director Chris Haley a formal opportunity to review the draft of the committee's report, a motion that passed 4-0-1 with Susan Driscoll recorded as the lone abstention.
The decision came after a lengthy discussion about the draft's sourcing, the limits of existing data and whether the committee's recommendations have adequately incorporated input from all advisory members. Tim Condon (RTM, Public Protection & Safety Committee) criticized the draft as containing material "not in the record" and urged "a roadmap of how best to scale up, with a ranking of each station's needs and capabilities." He said the northern section of town is a "staffing desert" and argued Quaker Hill should be prioritized for additional staffing over Oswegatchie.
Fire Services Director Chris Haley cautioned that performance data are "liquid," affected by factors such as the COVID pandemic, residential and commercial development and traffic changes, and said short-term recommendations could be overtaken by changing conditions. Ronnie Williams (WFD) said he has requested six years of response-time data, including pre-COVID records, and expects that data to be available at the committee's next meeting.
Richard Muckle (Board of Selectmen) defended the record of prior comprehensive reviews, saying past studies supported retention of five stations. Susan Driscoll (RTM), the committee secretary, replied that those reviews are now 15 years old and that the committee must determine how the town should best use stations that were built by private groups before current patterns of development.
The committee also discussed whether to provide a draft to the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) before finalizing recommendations. Committee members declined to make a motion to release the draft to the RTM at this meeting; several members said formal presentation to the RTM could invite premature debate and would weaken the committee's credibility if the underlying data aren't complete.
Public comment submitted by resident Ursula Moreshead argued against spending $12 million on a brand-new station. In written remarks, Moreshead wrote, "Asking the town's residents to pay $12 million towards a brand-new fire station is nonsensical if the bones of the building are good." She urged consideration of repairs instead of a rebuild, recommended combining staffing and equipment across nearby stations, suggested cutting the bond to $8 million and using $2.9 million from the OFS Building Renovations account to hire an outside consultant to produce a strategic plan.
A formal motion to have Director Haley review the draft was made by Richard Muckle and seconded by Tim Condon; the tally was recorded as Yes-4, No-0, Abstain-1 (Driscoll). A final procedural motion by Muckle, seconded by Matthew Keatley, adjourned the meeting at 8:15 p.m. by unanimous voice vote. The committee set its next meeting for Wednesday, June 18 at 6:00 p.m. at Cohanzie Fire Station and asked members to submit written comments ahead of that date.
