Letter: Regarding A New EMS Building

To the Editor:

Plans for Easton's new, desperately needed EMS building seem to have stalled before they even got started.

More than six months ago at the April 6 Board of Finance Meeting, Easton first selectman Bindelglass expressed support for using ARP (American Recovery Plan) funds for a new EMS building. Since then Bindelglass has reported no efforts to get the ball rolling.

As Easton Board of Finance chair Andy Kachele points out in his 10/12/21 letter to the Easton Courier (https://eastoncourier.news/2021/10/12/op-ed-new-ems-headquarters-needs-a-building-committee/), the first step that Easton routinely takes on major capital projects is "for the selectmen to recruit volunteers for a Building Committee and provide them with a charge defining the general scope of the project."

So far, first selectman Bindelglass has reported no effort to take this critical first step to establish a building committee and get this critically-needed project underway. BOF chair Kachele goes on to say in this Courier letter, "So far anything that was done has been done behind closed doors. Basically, we have delayed this critical project for half a year while the building has literally been falling apart. Our EMS volunteers and paid staff deserve better. In my experience in the corporate world, when a project as fully supported as this one shows so little progress for so long there is normally a change in leadership."

This sounds even more serious than yet another addition to first selectman Bindelglass's long and growing list of "Ooopses." It does seem to call for a change in leadership.

Grant Monsarrat
Easton, CT