Klarides Calls For Governor To Deal With Valley Fire School Funding

CT House GOP

House Republican Leader Themis Klarides of Derby.

HARTFORD — House Republican Leader Themis Klarides issued a statement Tuesday again calling for Gov. Ned Lamont to take steps that could release money meant to fund the construction of a long-delayed volunteer firefighter training facility in Beacon Falls.

Klarides reasoned that since the tolls issue, which she opposed, is on the back burner, it’s time for Lamont to make good on funding the fire school, something Lamont said he would accomplish while campaigning for governor in the Valley.

The Beacon Falls training school has been in the planning stages for more than a decade. Construction was estimated at $14 million. Lawmakers approved the money, but the fire school has not made it to the agenda of the state bond commission. 

Only the governor can made that happen.

In June, Lamont told The Valley Indy the fire school money would ​“definitely will make it” to the bond commission — but he tied its future to tolls, a measure Republicans opposed. At the time Lamont, a Democrat, said Republicans were backing a transportation funding program that relied too heavily on bonding. Borrowing for the fire school and transportation was too much, Lamont said at the time.

But, faced with opposition and Democratic state legislators nervous about backing a truck-only toll program, Lamont pulled tolls off the table about two weeks ago. The governor and pro-toll advocates were hoping to use toll money to bolster the state’s transportation funds.

“It is appropriate now that the tolls issue has been concluded for the time being that the governor make good on his campaign promise and authorize the money,” Klarides said in a written statement. ​“This is not about politics, this is about public safety.”

In an emailed response, Max Reiss, the governor’s communication director, indicated the state has to live within its means.

“Rep. Klarides knows full well that you cannot request funding for transportation, while also pushing for burdensome levels of borrowing that could only be paid back with tax increases to achieve her stated goal,” Reiss said. ​“The governor remains committed to ensuring that firefighters across Connecticut receive the advanced and specialized training that they need. That goal will be aligned with the governor’s fiscal approach to reduce the state’s overall borrowing.”

Releasing the money to build the fire school has bi-partisan support among the lawmakers who represent the lower Naugatuck Valley in Hartford. They appeared at a press conference in October asking Lamont to put the item on the commission’s agenda.

The fire training school is supposed to serve 22 towns in the region, Klarides said.

A fire training school used to be on O’Sullivan’s Island in Derby, where the Housatonic and Naugatuck rivers meet. It was closed due to extensive underground contamination. 

Keep local reporting alive. Donate.ValleyIndy.org