Tuesday, January 15, 2013
But they will hold off submitting it until after they meet again with Fire District commissioners on Feb. 4.
The Town Council will review a draft of legislation calling for the East Greenwich Fire District to be merged with the Town of East Greenwich at their next meeting, on Jan. 28. In November, voters approved by a two-to-one margin a nonbinding referendum question that asked if the Fire District should be merged with the town. The Fire District was against the merger and remains a reluctant party to the discussion. According to Town Council President Michael Isaacs, Fire Commissioner Chairman Bill Daly told him the Fire District has "some ideas they want to put on the table." He did not specify what those ideas might entail. Town Solicitor Peter Clarkin said the Fire District's solicitor, Scott Spear, indicated he thought a binding …
Monday, November 19, 2012
The postcard approved at a meeting Oct. 25 has since become a source of citizen complaints to the state Attorney General and the state Board of Elections.
At a meeting Thursday, East Greenwich Fire District Commissioners re-voted a decision made to mail a postcard to residents that outlined reasons why the district should remain autonomous. It was their first meeting since the election Nov. 6 that approved a nonbinding resolution calling for the merger of the fire district and the town. Currently, the town and the fire district are two separate governmental entities. The vote was 3-1 in favor of sending the postcard, with Commissioner Mark Gee casting the sole no vote, as he had in the original vote on Oct. 25. Commissioner Mark Schwager, who had voted in favor on Oct. 25, did not attend the Nov. 15 meeting. According EGFD lawyer Scott Spear, the re-vote was put on the agenda at his …
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
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 …
Friday, October 19, 2012
Some outtakes from Monday's forum with the Town Council and the Fire Commissioners on whether merging fire service with the town is the way to go.
They met, they discussed, and, for the most part, anyway, they disagreed at Monday night's forum on the Fire District and whether or not it should be merged with the town. Four out of five Town Council members favor the nonbinding ballot referendum promoting a merger. Three out of five Fire Commissioners are strongly against that idea. They met Monday with the public to discuss. About 30 residents came out for the forum. The video here features Town Councilor Jeff Cianciolo and a handful of citizen speakers.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Councilman Jeff Cianciolo suggests putting that question as a non-binding referendum on the November ballot.
At the end of Monday night’s Town Council meeting, during Council Comments, Councilor Jeff Cianciolo suggested adding a nonbinding referendum question to the November ballot that would ask whether the EG Fire District should be merged with the town or remain separate. Under the current long-standing arrangement, there is the Town of East Greenwich (which includes police, schools, public works and parks and rec) and the EG Fire District. They are completely distinct operations, with two separate taxing authorities. Many communities in the state have had such arrangements. Cianciolo, who was elected to the Town Council two years ago and is running for re-election, said he started thinking about this after he got on the Council and was …
sue lewis
9:06 am on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
The Fire Commissioner keeps saying they are doing fine and there's no reason to merge with the town, but he never mentions or talks about the 20 million dollar unfunded retirement liability they have or how they intend to resolve it. I dont think that this is doing "just fine" or that having a 700k slush fund is showing fisccal responsibility when this debt exists. more ›