If Norwich voters want to back the best and most sensible fire protection for their homes and businesses, they will vote “yes” in Wednesday’s single-question special election.

Stemming from a bygone time, the city is protected by a mix of paid and volunteer fire departments. The downtown and the densely developed, older neighborhoods that surround it are serviced by the full-time staffed Norwich Fire Department. The revenue to cover the pay and benefits for NFD firefighters comes from a special tax assessed to property owners in this City Consolidated District.

Norwich’s suburbs and villages are protected by five volunteer companies, Taftville, Yantic, East Great Plain, Laurel Hill and Occum. These volunteer companies are proud of their heritage of service and the benefits it provides their communities.

City residents owe a debt to all these first responders.

Unfortunately, relationships between the paid and volunteer departments have long been strained.

Those in the paid department point to their ability, with stations always staffed, to respond quickly to emergencies. They see as nonsensical the times they are left on the sidelines, while the volunteer departments turn instead for assistance to other volunteer companies in neighboring towns.

The volunteer companies fear increased dependence on the paid force could undermine the long tradition, and very existence, of their departments — and the savings they provide taxpayers — by leading to a paid fire service for the entire city.

When the city hired an outside consultant to review fire service, it reached the obvious conclusion that interdepartmental rivalries were taking precedent over fire protection. Among its major recommendations was implementing so-called “auto-aid,” meaning the city’s paid department would automatically respond to structure fires and other major emergencies anywhere in Norwich, assisting the volunteer companies. In turn, nearby volunteer departments would respond to assist the paid department.

Working with City Manager John Salomone, the five volunteer chiefs and the paid department chief had reached an agreement to do just that on a trial basis. But Democratic City Council President Pro Tempore Joseph DeLucia wanted the arrangement codified in law and jammed an ordinance through the council Dec. 5 on a party-line vote, 4-3, Democrats in favor and Republicans against.

However well intentioned, it was a ham-fisted move politically. The leaders of the volunteer companies felt their willingness to compromise had been rewarded with a powerplay by the Democratic majority. Giving the arrangement time to work, and building consensus in support of it, eventually leading to it becoming official policy, would have been the more sensible approach.

Members of the volunteer companies petitioned to force Wednesday’s special election in an attempt to reverse the ordinance. A “yes” vote backs the ordinance, a “no” vote repeals it.

While it was a political mistake by DeLucia to strong arm this ordinance into place, it would be a bigger mistake for Norwich voters to essentially reject this sensible policy. Technically, killing the ordinance would revert matters back to the trial-period approach, but with great uncertainty about its prospects of

long-term success given the acrimony that this situation has created. The matter needs to come to a head eventually and the vote provides that opportunity. Voters should respond “yes,” they want their fire departments working together.

But the momentum is behind the effort to reverse the ordinance. The volunteer firefighters and their families are a formidable voting block in the city, and they are engaged. It will prove difficult to overcome that voting block in what is likely to be an extremely low-turnout special election. If residents want to support the most sensible approach to fire protection, they must pay attention and vote.

Ultimately, paying for fire service in the city should be the obligation of all property owners with the needed revenue produced through general taxation, eliminating the City Consolidated District tax and providing necessary financial aid to all the departments. But that debate is for another day. On Wednesday Norwich residents, with a “yes” vote, can at least say, “Let’s all work together.”

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.