MOU led to review
Chief calls decision ‘bait-and-switch’
Coun. Jim Winsor, who represents the Greenwich area, said a memorandum of understanding (MOU) involving the municipality, Greenwich Fire Commission and fire department was signed in January 2021. This led to the review and recommendations by EM&T.
Winsor said there was “friction” between the Greenwich Fire Commission and fire department and concern that “dysfunctionality” could impact the provision of fire services. A few months prior to this, all the members of the Greenwich Fire Commission had resigned.
“There was a reluctance to get anybody to come back and take the roles of the fire commission, and so fire services to this area were all at risk then,” Winsor said.
He pointed out that this is why the County of Kings got involved. Winsor said it was agreed that the Greenwich Fire Commission would provide its assets to the fire department, which would continue to provide fire services for duration of the MOU. It expires March 31.
Winsor said the commission and fire department agreed to work with the municipality on a review of fire protection services in the Greenwich fire district that would address concerns, including the need for a large capital investment.
Winsor said the EM&T
report showed there were four to five times the service levels needed to provide the required coverage for Greenwich compared to National Fire Protection Association standards. EM&T also pointed out that the preferred governance model is a municipally owned department.
This is the case with Wolfville, which provides fire services to areas of the county on a contractual basis.
Winsor said a transition co-ordinator has been engaged to work with all parties, including working to identify an optimal site for a new fire station. He said there is “huge potential” that it could be located in Greenwich.
Greenwich Fire Chief Jason Ripley said the MOU he signed committed to a review of fire services within the Greenwich fire district.
He said he learned in a March 2021 meeting with the county’s deputy CAO Rob Frost the study “now suddenly included the Town of Wolfville.”
“Had I known that that was going to occur, I would not have signed that memorandum of understanding. That was a bait-and-switch, in my opinion,” Ripley said.
The chief said the dispute with the fire commission started after finding out that the fire department didn’t have the appropriate insurance coverage on its fire trucks.
Ripley contends the fire commission failed to address this “significant blind spot” and ended up quitting over
the issue.
Ripley said there were more problems after new fire commissioners were brought in. He said bills weren’t being paid, which was their job to do using operational funding provided by the municipality. The chief said, “it wasn’t a personality dispute.”
Ripley contends the municipality “reworded” the MOU he originally authored to get the fire commission onside, which led to the review by EM&T that included Wolfville.
He said they wouldn’t be against a merger with Wolfville, so long as Greenwich was treated as an equal partner through the transition. Instead, they’re being closed down.