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State Rep. Themis Klarides, R-Derby.
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Gov. Dannel P. Malloy
State Rep. Themis Klarides blasted Gov. Dannel Malloy after the lawmaker said plans for a fire training school in Beacon Falls have been “mothballed” by the state.
Klarides said it is outrageous the State Bonding Commission authorized funding for other projects at a meeting last week without approving $14 million to build the school.
A spokesman for Gov. Malloy said Klarides was being a hypocrite for demanding the money while criticizing other state borrowing.
The former Valley Fire Chiefs Training School on O’Sullivan’s Island in Derby closed in 2000.
The state has several regional fire training schools to train new firefighters and keep firefighters up to date on skills and tactics. In addition to classroom activities, the schools offer hands-on training with live burns.
The Valley school still offers courses to firefighters, it just doesn’t have a permanent home, said Charles Stankye III, a past president of the Connecticut State Firefighters Association and past chief of the Derby Fire Department who serves as secretary on the school’s board of directors.
“The Valley school never shut down,” Stankye said. “We teach out of a big suitcase and rotate to teach our classes in different firehouses.”
The Valley has a rich volunteer firefighting tradition. But because it has no physical school, the hands-on training happens at a fire training school in Fairfield, Stankye said.
In 2010, the state put up funding to buy 11 acres on Lancaster Drive in Beacon Falls for a new Valley firefighting training school — but hasn’t put up the money to actually build it.
‘Mothballed’
In a prepared statement Monday, Derby state Rep. Themis Klarides blasted Gov. Dannel Malloy’s administration for borrowing money for other projects without funding the fire training school.
Klarides said she and other Valley lawmakers met with the state’s Department of Administrative Services for an update about the school. “They were shocked to learn from DAS that the governor’s budget office will not provide funding to construct the $14 million facility,” Klarides’ statement said.
“It is outrageous that this school has been mothballed,” Klarides said. “Instead, the state Bond Commission last week spent millions on non-essential projects.”
Construction of the school was put out to bid in 2016, Klarides said, and was originally estimated to be done by January. Instead, the project “languished” and will have to be re-bid.
“Gov. Malloy and the Democrats on the state Bond Commission put millions more on the state’s credit card but when it comes to public safety for hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents there is no money,’’ Klarides said. “We have already committed more than $1.4 million to the fire school but the Democrats in charge have stopped the project and have said it will not go forward.”
104th District Candidates Weigh In
The two candidates on the ballot to represent the 104th District in the state House of Representatives both said the state should put up the money to build the school.
The Republican candidate, Joseph Jaumann, who also serves as a fire commissioner, said Malloy “continues to punish Valley communities.”
“I am calling on Governor Dan Malloy and Democrats on the Bond Commission to release the funds for the new Valley Regional Fire School,” he said. “I will always stand up for those that put their lives on the line to keep our communities safe.”
In a Facebook comment the Democratic candidate, Kara Rochelle, said funding for the school should have been released by the bonding commission. She also said the GOP is “grandstanding.”
“It was a Democratic legislature that authorized the land purchase for the fire school, approved funding for the fire school, and instructed the governor to bond it,” Rochelle said.
“As the daughter of a 50-year volunteer firefighter, fire chief, and instructor at the fire school, and as someone who has many friends, loved ones, and folks who are like family who serve in towns throughout the Valley, I ask you not to jump to conclusions that a whole party of people fails firefighters because of the actions of a Governor we are all happy to see leaving office.”
Malloy’s Office Responds
A spokesman for Malloy said Klarides is trying to have it both ways.
“There is a deep irony in a Republican Minority Leader who has long-decried state borrowing now demanding that Connecticut borrow to fund a local earmark,” Chris McClure, the spokesman, said.
He pointed to $43.6 million in spending allocated by the State Bonding Commission since Malloy took office for the fire training schools statewide.
“These funding decisions are made after a deliberative process among subject matter experts, not by highly-charged partisans desperate to retain caucus seats in an election year,” McClure said.
The Connecticut State Firefighters Association’s executive board called on the state to fund the Valley training school “without further delay” at its annual meeting last month.
Even without a permanent location, Stankye said the school’s offerings are as popular as ever.
The lower Valley’s fire departments are all-volunteer, but many members are also professional firefighters elsewhere.
“We have the highest student hours of the nine regional schools without a (physical) school,” Stankye said. “We need our own school.”
Volunteer firefighters often train at other schools in the area, such as the one in New Haven.
