Board of Finance Considers Fire Department Staffing, Revaluation

SOUTHINGTON FIRE DEPARTMENT PHOTO

Representatives from the Southington Fire Department made their case to hire three new firefighters at the Board of Finance’s January 28 meeting. Discussions at the meeting highlighted a struggle many towns around Connecticut are facing: new development puts a strain on public safety and infrastructure resources, while homeowners who are already feeling the pinch of inflation must confront the possibility of tax increases to pay for town services.

Interim Fire Chief Scott Lee made his case for additional bodies in terms that appealed to the Board’s fiscal responsibilities, saying that “running below effective crew levels increases injury risk and workers compensation exposure.”

One factor contributing to stresses on the Fire Department has been an increase in multiple simultaneous calls. Lee said that while the simultaneous call rate was only 2% when he was hired, the number is now close to 23%. “Saturday afternoon,” he reported, “we had a motor vehicle accident, we had two cardiac arrests and two other medical calls going on, plus a crash on I-84 that involved six cars. Where are the resources to help them?”

According to data shared with the Town’s Fire Commission, the Southington Fire Department responded to 2,539 calls in 2025, an average of nearly 7 per day.

While Southington has relied on a mix of professional firefighters and volunteers in the past, Lee pointed out that the volunteer pool has dwindled by as much as 75% since 1990. Grants from state and federal sources are highly competitive, and Southington has not been one of the lucky recipients.

Department Captain Lucas Martin reiterated Lee’s point, comparing Southington with other towns in New England that have received money, both from local funding and grants, to hire more firefighters despite smaller populations and slow growth.

Martin recounted an incident where Southington firefighters were trapped in a structure fire for nearly fifteen minutes as they awaited additional support from Bristol. He pinned the blame for this dangerous situation on the fact that their unit was not fully staffed. The lack of sufficient personnel, he said, puts ongoing serious stresses on the individuals who make up the Department. “Something bad is going to happen,” he warned, “and I don’t have the resources to help.”

Speaking against the hiring of additional firefighters was Susan Zabohonski of Southington. She cited the fiscal strains many in the community are facing, and thanked the Board of Finance for their “diligence” in scrutinizing additional spending.

The Board tabled consideration of the three hires. It will likely be discussed again at the February 11 meeting.

Revaluation

Town Assessor Erin O’Connell discussed the most recent property revaluation, calling it a difficult process.

For one, the value of farmland property initially escalated last month before the Governor’s office intervened to return assessment to 2020 levels. As a result the calculations had to be performed multiple times.

In addition to that, real property values increased in town 54% since the last revaluation, which has led some property owners to panic when they see the new number. O’Connell assured people that revaluation is not a tax increase, just an increase in real property values.

She noted that smaller homes – those less than 1200 square feet – saw one of the biggest increases in value, a trend she attributed to COVID. “A house that once would have sold for $165,000 is now selling for $325,000 and that just keeps going and going.” While the assessor’s office does not engage in “sale chasing,” O’Connell did say that those data points were incorporated into the algorithim that led to the new figures.

She also observed that homeowners who were glad to see their homes gain in value on real estate aggregator sites like Zillow sometimes turn around and criticize revaluation numbers. O’Connell pointed out that people “can’t have it both ways.”

Board Chair John Leary tried to draw the big picture. “If everybody’s house in town, every piece of real estate, doubled in value or quadrupled in value, we would be in a good place because we would just take the mill rate, chop it down, and get the same amount of tax dollars,” he said. “We’re still going to garner the $154 million the Town needs from tax revenue, but now we’re going to end up getting more from the smaller house and less from the commercial property. It’s the same net number coming into the Town, but there’s a change in who pays how much.”

Unlike with past revaluations, Leary said, “there’s a huge disparity between how much the small house moved versus the commercial (property).”

Leary emphasized that the revaluation process leads to a more realistic assessment of resale value. Taxpayers should look at the new number, multiply by .7 or 70% to get the assessed value, then plug in what is likely to be a lower mill rate. Leary requested that the assessor’s office provide a new mill rate number to help taxpayers prepare for billing season.