Norwich
“At this point it’s very much in its infancy,” said Town Manager Herb Durfee. “The fire district approached the town to see if this was something we would consider.”
That happened last week, when Michael Goodrich, the chairman of the three-member Prudential Committee (which governs the fire district) asked the Selectboard to send representatives to a pair of meetings in September and October to lay the groundwork for a possible formal proposal.
Selectboard members who last Monday attended the first of those two meetings declined to share details of the discussion. Selectman John Langhus, citing the preliminary nature of the talks, said it is “way too early” to comment publicly on it, while Selectwoman Linda Cook, who is also a firefighter, did not respond to a request for comment. The second meeting is scheduled for Oct. 22.
“It’s so preliminary,” Goodrich said on Thursday, after the first meeting. “We don’t even know what the next step is going to be.”
Durfee said officials are working to put together a “scope of work” that would outline the major issues in what would likely be a complex and far-reaching transaction.
The fire district has a total budget of about $425,000, which it uses primarily to operate a municipal water system that supplies 310 homes and 20 commercial businesses with potable water. It also supplies the water that the Norwich Fire Department uses for fire protection.
The fire department was part of the fire district until 1989, when it became a town department.
Durfee sounded a note of cautious optimism about the possibility.
“I’ve run a wastewater and a sewer system, and that’s not a big deal administratively for me,” he said. “There are a lot of issues to talk about. But they agreed to talk about it.”
Neil Fulton, former town manager and former deputy chief of the Norwich Fire Department, said that, over the years, the district has given up more and more of its responsibilities to the town, and the idea of making the district part of town government has cropped up numerous times.
“Discussions have bubbled to the surface every couple of years ever since I was in Norwich,” he said.
In addition to operating the fire department, the district also once handled its own zoning, and used to own more land.
“I certainly think it is something that should be given serious consideration,” said Fulton.
Two broad sets of concerns will likely determine if the change is made, Fulton said.
The first is financial.
“What would be the impact on the town public works department?” he asked. “And how does that compare to the cost of the fire district doing it themselves?”
“The other issue,” said Fulton, “is the politics of the change.”
He said that some people believe having two separate boards is an unnecessary duplication of efforts, while others feel that having a dedicated three-member Prudential Committee gives the water service more attention and care than it would otherwise receive.
The idea of two separate governance boards operating within the borders of a single town is a relic of the past, said Durfee, when Vermont’s agrarian economy put a high priority on protecting rural farmers from the costs of maintaining village-specific infrastructure such as sidewalks, street lights and community water services.
In 1832, the Vermont Legislature first allowed neighborhoods of at least 20 voters to establish fire districts for fire protection. The laws were updated in 1908, 1917 and 1933 to allow for the provision of other services, according to a history of fire districts on the Colchester Fire Department website.
“Fire districts have often played a leading role in Vermont’s modern environmental conservation movement by providing quality drinking water and effective wastewater treatment often via the same water source,” according to the website history. “However, as these services become ever more complex, towns and regional or inter-municipal agencies may be better suited to fulfilling the tasks.”
And, though fire districts are common throughout the region, communities are changing, creating or eliminating them as their needs change. Last year, Royalton’s Prudential Committee formally asked the town to take over fire services, while Weathersfield considered creating a fire district.
“In Norwich,” said Durfee, “obviously a lot of people outside the village benefit from the fire department. The idea of having a municipality inside a municipality has become sore of suspect.”
One issue that’s come up in recent years is sidewalks, said Goodrich. In 2015, the town asked the Prudential Committee to contribute $25,000 toward new granite curbing on fire district-owned North Main Street sidewalks extending from Koch Road to Hazen Street. The Prudential Committee noted that it had been unable to maintain the sidewalks for years, and suggested that the town take possession of all the sidewalks instead. Those discussions are still happening.
“Some of the sidewalks are still owned by the fire district,” said Goodrich. “We’ve been in dialogues to give them over to the town, but there are still a few areas where they may need to be upgraded … before the town wants to take possession.”
Any deal would need to be approved by the voters, and that’s not likely to happen until next year at the earliest.
“Along the way, at a minimum, there would be some kind of a forum or public hearing, and that would be one opportunity for the public to weigh in,” said Durfee.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.
Correction
Former Town Manager Neil Fulton has retired as deputy chief of the Norwich Fire Department. An earlier version of this story incorrectly described his status with the department.