Consolidating four Burrillville fire districts likely to be ballot question come November

BURRILLVILLE — A non-binding referenda on whether to consolidate the four fire districts in town is still on track to go before voters in the November election.

At a meeting Wednesday, the Burrillville Town Council voted to hold off approving the language of the proposed ballot question to be submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office pending input from the fire districts themselves.

The non-binding referendum as proposed by Councilman David J. Place states, “Would you support a future consolidation of your fire district with one of more of the other fire districts in the Town of Burrillville.”

Place was looking for the council to approve the language Wednesday, but the panel on a recommendation by Councilmen Donald Fox and Raymond Trinque decided instead to table the vote until it hears back from the districts. A letter soliciting that input will be mailed out to each of the fire districts and is due back to the town by the council’s regular monthly meeting in July.

Merging the town’s fire districts has been hot-button issue in town for years. There are four fire districts in town, including the Harrisville Fire District, Pascoag Fire District, Nasonville Fire Distirct, and Oakland-Mapleville Fire District. Fire districts are autonomous units of government within a city or town that normally exist for the purpose of providing fire protection and related services.

Place said the ballot question is a way to merely “get the pulse” of what the people of Burrillville want said.

“I’ve been on the council since 2010 and have heard both sides of this issue,” Place said. “On the one side are the people who like the districts the way they are, while on the other side there are people who think the districts should be consolidated. But no one can give a clear answer on where the majority of the people of this community stand on this.”

“I can sit here and give arguments both for and against,” he added. “My personal opinions have swayed back and forth, but I think its important for the town’s long-term planning purposes to find out what the residents think.”

Place made it clear that the Town Council has no desire to take over the fire districts.

“We don’t want that,” he said. “It’s not an additional thing the town wants to take over. We have confidence in the fire districts to manage themselves. This is for long-term planning and to determine where the people in this community want to go on this issue.”

Place said the Town Council is the only body that can put the ballot question forward.

“This (referenda) gives the decision makers in the future - both at the fire district level and the state level - an understanding of where this community wants to go,” he said.

The idea of merging the four fire districts in Burrillville has been raised off and on for more than 20 years, but has never amounted to anything more than talk because there has never been a formal consensus among the districts, some of which have vehemently spoken out against consolidation.

Several years ago, the Town Council sent out letters to the four districts to see if they would be interested in taking part in a study to determine the feasibility of either merging the districts or having the town take over fire service operations.

At that time, the Nasonville Fire District taxpayers authorized the chairwoman of the Nasonville Fire District Operating Committee to ask the town to hire a company to conduct an independent feasibility study to look at the effectiveness of the operations of the present fire and rescue services. The ultimate goal of the study would have been to determine the feasibility of either merging the four districts into a consolidated fire district, or having the town take over fire service operations.

Nasonville sent the later after taxpayers in Nasonville were told they would be facing a 20 percent tax increase that year.

The Town Council voted to defer Nasonville’s request to conduct the study until it gauged first whether there was interest and support from the town’s other three fire districts to even consider such a study. When contacted, Harrisville, Pascoag and Oakland-Mapleville Fire Districts all declined to participate.

There are more than 40 independent fire districts in 15 of the state’s 39 communities. In addition to Burrillville, Glocester, and Lincoln, there are fire districts in Foster, Charlestown, Scituate, Coventry, West Greenwich, Hopkinton, Richmond, Westerly, South Kingstown, Exeter and East Greenwich.

In a November 2010 referendum, Cumberland voters approved going to one fire service in 2013.