Council Votes To Draft Fire District Merger Legislation

According to Town Councilman Jeff Cianciolo, the voice of the people came through loud and clear on Election Day: the vote on merging the EG Fire District with the Town of East Greenwich passed by a 2-to-1 margin.

"I think it's incumbent on us to try to work with the Fire District and our state legislators to prepare legislation to merge the district with the town," Cianciolo said at Monday night's Town Council meeting at Swift Community Center.

Town Manager Bill Sequino said he'd spoken to Fire Commission Chair Bill Daly earlier in the day and Daly told him the commissioners would be discussing the referendum at their next meeting, Dec. 20. Sequino said Daly did not tip his hand as to the direction of those talks.

According to Town Council President Michael Isaacs, merger legislation would have to be drawn up by February to be considered during the next legislative session, which starts in January. 

Cianciolo told his colleagues he had fire district merger templates from other Rhode Island communities to use as a starting point. The Council passed a motion to draft the merger legislation by a 4-0 vote. Councilman Mike Kiernan was absent.

The Council and the Fire District hold a joint meeting on Feb. 4. 

EG Patch will be reporting other issues from Monday night's meeting in coming days.