This just proves that we have not lost faith in our community, just in community leaders.

These are the acts that make America great. It give these men and woman a chance to see that aside from John Assalone and his followers, that they are appreciate for being there for the people of Coventry when most would have walked away. True heroes in any book.

John I got to agree with you, not everyone in Coventry are Assalones or his cult of kool-aid drinkers..It is sad but every town has a couple and what really sets us aside is when we see the light and work together for the good of us all and not the 1 % or his dominion.

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Two guarantees in life....only two. Death and Taxes!!!!!! Please look at the bigger picture and not have tunnel vision while you mull over wanting less taxes.I would like less taxes to, but my tax rate went up in Western and guess what I did...I paid them! The bigger picture tells me that everything from fuel, grocieries to utilities and everything else has gone up, so knowing this I except it because I know OUR taxes run the department. You all talk about closing this station and laying off these people to lower your taxes but again-( this is tunnel vision)--any of these fixes are bandaids that will ultimately not bode well for the protection of property and life!!!! I am tired of the one way thought processes portrayed on here. If you are not part of the solution, do not be part of the problem. Thank you to all the CCFD firefighters. You are the ONLY ones who shall be commended ( along with the business and folks coming to their aid while they get no paycheck). Thanks!!

Definitely in the know

Overwhelmingly the people of Coventry are grateful to the service and protection that the CCFD FFs continue to provide in this difficult time and don't blame the FFs for the mess that has occurred. The same support applies to the businesses and individuals trying to assist the FFs get over this hump in the road so they can get by until the paychecks start flowing again. But tunnel vision in ignoring the cause of what led up to this financial horror show is not what is needed. The Coventry taxpayers supporting their Fire Departments and in particular the CCFD want to know how they got into a 1.6 million dollar deficit. Some have offered that some of the equipment purchases have been unneeded while others think that the contracts signed were too generous. I don't know how the CCFD got to the place they are but I do understand the need to find out how this occurred. If you don't know the cause, how can you fix it? Sure prices have gone up for fuel, benefits, utililities, equipment maintenance, etc. but aren't these increases budgeted for every year? How does this end up in a 1.6 million dollar deficit? Sorry, the taxpayers can't keep their blinders on when it is obvious that something is terribly amiss in the CCFD financial management. Finally, my commendations as well to the CCFD FFs and the community efforts to help them get over this financial mess that they are bearing the brunt of.

1. No tax revenue for two years from the real estate crisis where people had abandoned their homes or they were foreclosed on.
2. No tax increase for three years( while concessions were made..our blinders could have been on for this one--we loved it)
3. No budget increase at all. or minimal at best. (more blinders--don't you thiink?)
4. Increased utility bills, fuel bills, maintenance costs, etc.
5. We, the taxpayers not wanting to budge on any increases because we are already paying way too much for everything else. ( again- more blinders--)
I am sure there is more, but you get the picture.

Pretty straight forward and simple from a business standpoint. Oh and btw...lots of grants were used to purchase necessary equipment and personnel .That meant no money out of our pockets!! We were very happy about that. Then--inflation caught up with that stagnant budget and voila- here we are.With that said,utilmately sacrifices must be made on our part to ensure a properly run district with all available resources. Going down to bare bones just asks for trouble and does not meet the objective of any fire department regardless of where it is.

Remember, their objective is to serve and protect us and our lives and our properties. Bottom line, no other objective--thats it!!!

From a business standpoint, if your actual expenses are running ahead of your budgeted expenses and your revenue (in this case tax collections) are not running equal to your budgeted revenue you have a deficit, a loss, no money! That means in the business world, you cut, cut, cut. Severance people, sell equipment, become more efficient in your operations. In the business world business does this by freezing hiring, freezing promotions, not filling open positions due to attrition, pay cuts, dropping pensions, dropping benefits, reducing the cost of other benefits like increasing the amount that employees contribute towards their health care, reduce the number of paid sick days, eliminate travel, eliminate training, freeze buying office supplies, get by on the existing equiprment (fix the old - don't buy new), renegotiate contracts with their suppliers, consolidate their operations, and seek other business partners to merge with. Pretty straight-forward really. Now a Fire Department cannot operate exactly as a business as a minimal level of service is required for public safety but one thing is for sure; it needs to carefully budget, track revenues & expenses to that budget and raise flags when things are going out of whack. For instance, the lack of revenue due to reduced tax collections because of foreclosed properties is not something that just popped up. The housing collapse happened over the last 4 years. This is a lack of financial management plain and simple.

Thanks John for enlightened me. Aren't you going to call me a John Assalone lacky? You are so shallow. Read the preceeding posts and get a clue!

When you cut through all the rhetoric we are left with a glaring defect; Coventry residents pay separate fire & lighting taxes based on a percentage of property valuation. Since 2008, many homes have been abandoned or foreclosed upon, which leaves the basis for these 'Fire' taxes falling short of minimal funding requirements to sustain the fire dept's budget in its current form. Eliminating overtime and scaling back on incidentals will only go so far to shore up this problem. Maybe looking to other towns throughout the nation to find ways they found to fix the underlying issues. You can't fix the problem with the problem. Asking those who caused it to solve it is ridiculous, they obviously need outside intervention! Maybe we should securitize our Fire taxes int CDO's the way investment banks securitized mortgages and sell them in AAA rated tranches to unwitting investors abroad? haha

I am sure these coventry residents dont know that the CCFD union has voted to not participate in the towns annual "tis the season boot drive" for families in need.. As they recently have been.. Seems they forgot who came to there aid when they were not getting paid.. However these same fire fighters will stand on corners for hours at a time collecting for MDA with and issue...What is wrong with these fire fighters..They only take up union causes when told to do so and they seem to have done quite a bit of fundraisers for themselves recently..