By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
A study by two-time candidate for governor Ken Block points out duplication and high costs for fire services in Rhode Island, including a high number of fire stations grouped close together, and high pension costs for many of the departments.
Block said he computed overall fire service costs in Rhode Island at $313 million, unfunded fire service pension liabilities at $917 million and a per capital cost estimated at $315 per resident.
“As a metro area with 900,000 people and 480 square miles, the fact that I cannot find another similar sized community in the country that comes close to (Rhode Island) in terms of the number of fire engines, the number of ladders and the number of fire stations, leads me to logically conclude that we probably have more than we need,” Block said Tuesday,
He offered about a 45-minute presentation to reporters at Taco, Inc., the Cranston-based heating and air conditioning equipment manufacturing plant owned by the politically involved John Hazen White, Jr.
Block pointed out what he called duplication in the town of Lincoln, where seven fire stations, many with its own chief and administrative staff, are within a few miles of one other.
He also said there are 31 fire stations within five miles of downtown Pawtucket, not including fire stations on the Rhode Island side of the Massachusetts border.
“The reason this happened is that a lot of these fire stations were situated next to mills back in the day. The mills are gone or empty, no longer working, and yet the fire stations are still there,” Block said.
“These fire stations were built when fire engines were pulled by men or horses, and today you have large engines that can pull the truck much greater distances in a shorter amount of time.”
Block said he and a staff of about four fellow board members of his group watchdogri.org sought information from the state’s cities, towns and fire districts, and compiled his report at a cost of about $2,500. On its website, the group says it is also working to identify voter fraud using voter registration and voter history data.
Additionally, Block all but ruled out another run for governor in 2018. He ran unsuccessfully on the Moderate Party ticket in 2010, and ran without success for the Republican nomination for governor in 2014.
