Report: Central Coventry Fire District to File for Bankruptcy

Robert Flanders, the man who led Central Falls through its bankruptcy, has been hired to begin the process of a Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing for the beleaguered Central Coventry Fire District, WPRI’s Ted Nesi reported Wednesday night.

Stephen Hartford, the state-appointed receiver who has been overseeing the fire district’s finances, confirmed that Flanders was hired to prepare the bankruptcy filing.

“The district is continuing to operate and we can’t afford to pay the bills, we can’t afford to pay our past obligations – we’re not meeting our requirements under the current labor agreement,” Hartford said. “We worked for the past several months trying to work out a deal, and we haven’t been able to do that.”

There’s still a chance that a deal with firefighters can be reached between now and the expected filing in about two weeks, Hartford said, but considering the condition of the district’s finances, any concessions would be drastic.

Meanwhile the president of the Coventry Professional Fire Fighters’ Local 3372, the fire union, has said that the continued financial problems facing the fire district -- and now, apparently the Coventry (Anthony) Fire District as well -- is a powerful signal that now is the time to consider merging all fire districts into a town fire department.

East Greenwich merged its collection of fire districts into a town fire department last year.