Neighbor News
Vote Yes! Our First Responders Deserve More—So Do Our Citizens
Police Commissioners Take Unprecedented Action
In an unprecedented action, all five members of the Ridgefield Board of Police Commissioners have issued an Open Letter/Joint Statement regarding the proposed public safety building in Ridgefield. The Statement reads:
As Ridgefield taxpayers with backgrounds in public safety policy, finance, real estate, law, legislation, risk management, investments, homeland security and disaster management, we urge voters to support the proposed public safety building on November 4th.
Ridgefield is the safest city in the America. Why? In no small measure because of our first responders—the officers who serve in our police department, the career and volunteer firefighters who serve us every day, and the 911 dispatchers who coordinate calls for help. Despite their extraordinary service, our responders serve from archaic facilities patched together with costly temporary fixes.
The people of Ridgefield deserve better and our first responders deserve better.
Part of the solution is a modern facility built for today's needs — and tomorrow's. This is not just an investment in first responders; it's an investment in all of us who rely on our responders during our worst moments.
Yes, there is a cost to this project, but these costs are better viewed as an investment—an investment in a safer, better prepared Ridgefield. It's an investment that will benefit our Town for generations.
After seven years of careful study, we can declaratively state that the proposed facility is the single best of the multiple options that were examined and stress-tested for public safety mission readiness and fiscal responsibility. Again, after years of investigation and research: no more postponements; no more patchwork fixes; and no more treating first responder facilities a second-class priority.
It's time for an investment to meet higher standards. As participants in the process, we can represent the approach taken has been strategic, fiscally prudent and long-term in focus.
We ask our neighbors to vote yes. Invest in our first responders and keep Ridgefield safe and caring.
--John Frey, Marcie Coffin, Issy Caporale, Sharon Dornfeld and Ralph Money
*Disclosures: The signers of this letter are the five elected members of the Ridgefield Board of Police Commissioners and all five have served as members of the Town's Public Safety Building Planning Committee during all of their terms of office. Their opinions and perspectives are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies or positions of any organization or group with which they may be affiliated.
