On Tuesday, February 26, 2013, at the Groton Town Council Committee of the Whole meeting, Town manager Mark Oefinger commented publicly on various external factors which would be negatively affecting the Town Budget. One of these involved the "Pilot Program" which, in Groton's case, concerns some money extended by the State of CT to local municipalities which is in turn split up and extended to the individual fire districts based upon territory and need.

Mr. Oefinger indicated that, because this money would no longer be provided by the state, he was therefore proposing that Pilot Program money no longer be provided to the fire districts themselves at this point. He stated that, in the specific case of the Poquonnock Bridge Fire District, "whether for good or bad reasons, it looks like their intent is to run themselves into the ground, with multiple bad decisions. And in fact, they (are the ones who) would be getting the bulk of this funding in the first place....."

Mr. Oefinger had also expressed concern with the fact that no one had been willing to come and sit down and talk with the Town about this funding situation.

It would appear, unfortunately, that the Town is now losing faith in the present PBFDistrict Board and their ability to properly manage the Fire Department itself.

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Information Source for this article is directly from a video recording of the 03/26/13 COW meeting. Any comments of questions may be directed to: edwardr.johnson72@gmail.com