In December 2018, we first submitted our plan to renovate the Round Hill Volunteer Fire Company firehouse – for the first time in 45 years – to the Town of Greenwich’s BET Budget Committee.
Since then, we have encountered an unrelenting series of obstacles that have impacted the renovation: the BET’s Townwide Matrix Fire Study, the transition to Fred Camillio as First Selectman, the COVID-19 pandemic, the retirement of two Greenwich Fire Chiefs and the hiring of the current chief, the Town’s complex Planning & Zoning process, an unprecedented ruling by the State Department of Labor, the hiring of a new Town Administrator, and the Town repeatedly changing the “rules of engagement” despite two separate signed agreements approved by the BET and RTM. Each of these hurdles has caused significant delays and driven project costs higher.
These delays and cost increases have also stalled the project even further. We find ourselves back at the negotiating table, seven years later, with personnel who were not even employed by the Town when this journey began.
Yet we are committed. Even as the Town continues to move the goalposts, our volunteer firefighters continue to respond to emergencies within and outside of our District at near-record numbers. Within the last six weeks alone, we staffed the firehouse for 12 and 24-hour shifts during the recent severe snowstorms. We did so in our firehouse that had no heat and no hot water, where interior temperatures dropped into 40s, and slept on military-style cots generously provided by the Greenwich Police Department. Our volunteer firefighters left their families and their own warm homes to protect yours.
We are incredibly appreciative of the nearly 75 families who donated to our renovation fund several years ago. Please know those funds remain held in dedicated accounts to be used only for the renovation. However, because of the delays and rising costs, we fear we may be required to reinstitute our Capital Campaign and seek additional donations from the other 2,500+ families in our community.
We understand our community’s confusion; no one is more frustrated than our volunteer firefighters who have been pushing this project uphill for more than seven years.
We remain committed to working with the Town in good faith and look forward to finally beginning this long-overdue renovation. We will continue to update you as developments occur. In the meantime, our volunteers will continue to respond to each and every call in the back country.
With gratitude and determination,
The Members of Round Hill Volunteer Fire Company
Serving Greenwich’s Back Country Since 1948
