Mr. DeAngelis's Letter To The Editor Once Again Full Of Inaccuracies And Distortions

“Middlebury First Selectman Tom Gormley is responding to the national economic crisis by proposing to raise local taxes 10 percent. Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric coming from Town Hall.

This proposed budget could be re­duced easily by removing the unmonitored spare fuel tank and the duplicate communications services; stopping payment of insurance premiums for private companies; stopping lavish spending for a fire department that has more than $800,000 in reported assets; and stopping payment of duplicate legal fees to a town attorney who hires other attorneys to perform his work.

If I have any money left over from my pension check, I would rather spend it on my grandchildren than on chrome wheels for the fire chief’s car.”

Mr. DeAngelis’s letter to the Editor (Republican/American September 25, 2008) is once again not accurate, full of distortions, and is an attempt to promote distorted views of what is really happening in Middlebury.  Mr. DeAngelis keeps repeating the same inaccurate statements hoping that people will believe them. The motive is to make the current administration look bad and somehow in an awkward and convoluted way bolster the legacy of Mr. St. John.  

Once again we list what is really true and what is not.

1) Tom Gormley has not raised your taxes one dollar.  He has reduced the Town budget by 3.16%. This reduction on the Town side will help offset the whopping increase on the Region 15 side, that has already been passed earlier this year. That is Region 15’s budget, not Tom Gormley’s budget. 

Tom Gormley nor anyone in Town can do anything about the current increase in the Region 15 budget. Saying otherwise is simply not being accurate. It was voted on months ago, and although Middlebury residents voted it down, Southbury passed it. Game over. 

Mr. DeAngelis would have you believe that the Town should keep hacking away at the Town side of the budget, and allow the Region 15 budget to run wild. That move would weaken services, and result in layoffs of Town employees. Weakening services will result in decreased property values, lower bond ratings, and an unsatisfactory ISO rating. 

2) Remove the “unmonitored spare fuel tank.” Another distortion. The new tank will replace the present tank.  For years under the St. John administration, Fire HQ was being heated with expensive high-quality diesel oil fuel meant for fire apparatus.  This was a waste of taxpayer money. To save money the Gormley administration will be installing a new apparatus fuel tank at Fire HQ, so that the building will now be heated with less expensive home heating oil from the existing tank.  The savings for this is extensive, so much that the tank will pay for itself in less than 3 years.

The notion that the present fuel pump at Fire HQ is not monitored is a lie.  The pump is locked at all times, a log of fuel taken from the tank is recorded in each apparatus and the pump itself is under 24 hour camera surveillance.

3) Mr. DeAngelis seems to have no understanding of how the 911 system in Middlebury works. He keeps referring to “duplicate communication services.” He obviously has no concept that the Town can not eliminate Northwest C-Med without first bringing proper EMD services to Town. The present system allows for better patient care, and increases the rate that calls are dispatched. The cells of the brain of a patient who is not breathing will begin to die in 4 to 6 minutes. Quicker dispatch equates to more lives saved. How much is that worth?

Having all communications at Middlebury HQ would be the ultimate solution, but in order to do it properly more taxpayer money will have to be sunk into the communications budget. How much would taxes increase by adding a second dispatcher to each shift? We can safely say it would be a lot more expensive than using Northwest.

4) The vague reference to insurance premiums is another red herring, and relates to the amount the Town pays to insure the two ambulances and 12 ambulance auxiliary members. The two vehicles come under the Town’s fleet insurance now, so adding or subtracting a vehicle from this policy would do little to change the premium. Mr. DeAngelis and Mr. McCormack like to float Mr. St. John’s $40,000 figure which has absolutely no basis in fact. It is a made-up number. The Ambulance Billing system saves taxpayers thousands of dollars each year.

5) The $800,000 that the MVFD supposably stores in its treasury could be used to buy fire apparatus is not correct, has never been correct, and never will be correct. The MVFD responded to this claim way back on February 1st, 2008 - 

http://www.middleburyfire.org/letter2_1_08.pdf, 

and yet Mr. DeAngelis just keeps singing the same chorus like a bad song you  just can’t get out of your head.

6) The chrome wheels replaced rusted and unsafe steel wheels, were ordered under last year’s budget and in-service under last year’s budget. The bill may have come after the new fiscal year started, but the funds were coming from the budget year before. This dispels the notion that the MVFD was purchasing “luxury items” after this fiscal year began and in a time when the Town can’t pass a budget. The argument has no basis in fact.

These “luxury wheels” were $125.00 each and included the labor to remove the old wheels and replace the new wheels.  The wheels themselves were used and the MVFD was given a price that was lower than replacing the unsafe wheels with new steel wheels. That was a savings, not an outlandish purchase.  Once again, a manufactured controversy.