By Devon Lash
STAFF WRITER
The Advocate Posted: 01/15/2009
Stamford league regroups around fire department flap - Topix
STAMFORD -- After a decade of inactivity, the Stamford chapter of the League of Women Voters is trying to regain its foothold in the community. At the one of the group's first meetings Wednesday night at the Stamford Government Center, members decided to study the contentious issue of paid versus volunteer firefighter services in the city in hopes of influencing public policy and debate.
"We searched for a topic to start to build an education for the community that is consistent with the league's past history," said Martin Levine, a member.
Sitting at a conference table in the Stamford Senior Center, Levine and 13 women debated among three topics, including grouping students by achievement levels and the need for moderate income housing.
This will be a dispassionate study that will look at other communities' best practices, the history of the issue in Stamford, interviews with those on each side of the debate and the city's decisions, Levine said.
"We don't have to come down on one side or the other," Levine said. "We can present the data "¦ people can make up their own minds."
The city has been involved in legal contests with the volunteer departments for more than a year.
Last week, the city circulated proposed ordinances to the Board of Representatives, the Board of Finance and the Planning Board for discussion. The ordinances would redraw the borders between the career department and two of the so-called Big Five volunteer firehouses and would allow the city to take over firefighting operations in Belltown and Turn of River.
These districts were determined at least 60 years ago when town and city merged, Levine said.
Allison Rodney, the group's co-president, voted to study the debate involving firefighters.
"My father was a city firefighter," she said, explaining that the issue was close to her heart.
Rodney, a Stamford resident, had to join the league's Greenwich chapter while she waited for the Stamford chapter to start anew.
The members who sat around the table Wednesday sharing homemade brownies, tortilla chips, popcorn and bottled water were fewer than half the 35 members who have registered since the group began to re-form last year.
Participants in the Stamford chapter are currently considered members-at-large of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut, but they plan to become full-fledged members of the chapter in March, Cindy Dill, a co-president, said.
That wasn't always the case for the Stamford chapter, said Marianne Pollak, a league veteran who is serving as its informal advisor.
"The league has had a very active history," Pollak said. "Whenever there was a question about the role of government and how government can best serve its community, the league was there."
From budget issues to school boards to planning and zoning to charters, talking to the league was always a part of the process, she added.
In the late 1990s, Pollak said, the league suffered from a lack of leadership and member interest and became defunct.
"Women were going back to work, things were changing in terms of electronics, and Stamford is a very diverse community," she said.
As the league once again delves into timely and local issues, member Kate Urbank said she expects the membership to continue to grow.
"We're putting a 21st century spin on an organization that's one-of-a-kind," she said. "We're in good hands."
-- Staff Writer Devon Lash can be reached at 964-2242 or devon.lash@scni.com.
The League of Women Voters committee will begin its study of the issue of paid versus volunteer firefighters at noon on February 2 on the fourth floor of the Government Center. The league's next general meeting will be sometime in April. For more information, e-mail lwvstamford@gmail.com.