Norwich OKs $800,000 bond to buy air packs for fire departments

Norwich — The City Council approved an $800,000 bond ordinance to buy personal air packs and related equipment for the city’s six fire departments, with a bulk of the funding going toward purchasing new packs and equipment at four volunteer fire departments.

The council voted 6-0 after hearing mixed opinions by several speakers on the bonding ordinance during a public hearing at the start of Tuesday’s meeting.

While all speakers acknowledged the need for the potentially life- saving equipment, opponents of the proposal said the equipment should have been included in the annual budget process rather than through borrowing.

Taftville Volunteer Fire Chief Timothy Jencks told the council during the hearing that the air packs are “probably the most important piece of equipment we wear.”

Alderwoman Joanne Philbrick said she supported the purchases, but also questioned why the city doesn’t have better planning for replacing essential equipment on a rotating basis through a capital equipment budgeting.

Four- term Alderman William Nash, a member of the council’s Public Safety Committee, said he has sat in on many budget meetings that included cuts in equipment and deferments of purchases for fire departments.

He said the city could not afford to place nearly a million dollars for equipment purchases in the annual budget.

“Why are they not on a rotating schedule?” Nash said. “They were on a rotating schedule. We cut them.”

Nash said these purchases are not luxury items, they are essential pieces of equipment needed to go into burning buildings “and then go home after.”

According to a memo to Mayor Deberey Hinchey and members of the City Council by city Comptroller Josh Pothier, the paid Norwich central city fire department and the Yantic Volunteer Fire Department have been replacing and upgrading their self- contained breathing apparatus over the past 15 years.

The other four volunteer departments have been repairing air packs purchased in 1999 that now have reached the end of their useful period, Pothier reported.

The ordinance allocation includes $ 203,730 for the Taftville Volunteer Fire De- partment, $ 189,665 for East Great Plain Volunteer Fire Department, $177,591 for Laurel Hill Volunteer Fire Department and $171,595 for the Occum volunteer department.

The Norwich paid department would receive $ 13,316 in equipment related to air packs, including valve assemblies, and Yantic would receive $24,358 for equipment, including pack tracker safety devices, Pothier wrote.

The $800,000 is the maximum allowed by city charter to be borrowed for one purchase without a referendum.

In his report, Pothier said most of the packs at Norwich and Yantic departments are expected to last another 10 years. He estimated five packs will have to be purchased for the Norwich department in 2017.

Between 2021 and 2026, about 70 to 80 Norwich city and Yantic packs will need to be replaced.

Pothier said the city’s bond rating remains strong at AA, and the city has been retiring about $ 4 million in debt per year for the past few years.

“This proposed bond ordinance should not have an adverse effect on the ratings’ agencies assessment of our debt profile,” Pothier wrote.