While Fire Commissioner Bill Daly called for a task force to study merging with the town, Council President Michael Isaacs said the voters had spoken.
Here are video clips from Monday's meeting between the East Greenwich Fire District and the EG Town Council as they discussed how to go forward following a vote last November calling for the EGFD to be merged with the town. To read a full account of the meeting, click here.
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Voters approved the nonbinding ballot referendum asking if the Town and the Fire District should merge by an overwhelming majority on Tuesday – 4,425 to 2,239.
Officials are pondering how to move forward after voters Tuesday approved the idea of merging the EG Fire District with the Town. The ballot question was not binding, since by state law any such change needs to be made by the General Assembly. Three of the five Fire Commissioners came out against merging the District with the Town, including board Chairman Bill Daly. “We didn’t really get the chance to get the word out,” he said. Still, said Daly, “we’re going to cooperate. I think we’ll present our point of view.” Town Manager Bill Sequino said the referendum passed “more overwhelming” than he he thought it would. As for what to do now, Sequino said, “I think the Council and the Fire District should get together.” Sequino said many …
2:14 pm on Monday, November 19, 2012
Alan Clarke and others who question the validity of the vote are on target. The referendum, which was non-binding anyway, therefore not to be taken altogether seriously, was really nothing more than authorizing the council and the district to discuss how it could be done. Once a plan is drawn up, it should be submitted to the taxpayers once again. more ›
Chuck Newton
9:42 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
There is a broad historic overview of the East Greenwich Fire District on the EGFD website - www.egfiredistrict.net/DistrictHistory.pdf more ›