The Norwich Auto Aid vote on Feb. 1 is a direct result of Joe DeLucia causing a division between the volunteer and paid fire departments. Joe is oblivious regarding fire safety. He a councilman not a fireman!

Voting NO will leave the volunteers to continue with making sound judgments on all calls resulting in auto aid. Voting YES will leave firehouses undermanned, overworked, increased budgets, unnecessary mileage on already stressed trucks, not to mention increased budgets for the paid and volunteers.

Joe DeLucia is right with one aspect, it is absolutely a public safety issue. Subjecting fire trucks racing unnecessary miles out of their fire districts. Imagine the Norwich paid firetrucks automatically racing to fires in Taftville, Baltic, Yantic, EGP, Occum, Laurel Hill, etc. All volunteers will automatically be racing to the City.

Perhaps Joe DeLucia forgot this one-sided fire study also discussed eliminating critical apparatus from the Paid Fire Department. Yet no mention! Residents of Norwich, be warned, your taxes will increase if you vote YES. It is common sense! Every vote will be critical. PLEASE VOTE NO. We pay enough taxes. Our volunteers are heroes and deserve the respect! Let fireman not politicians make critical life altering decisions.

Timothy Coleman

Norwich