Litchfield Board of Selectmen: Emergency Services Volunteer Shortages, Sewer Tax Increase, R20 Debt

06/17/25

Present: First Selectman Denise Raap and Selectmen John Bongiorno, Dan Morosani, Jeff Zullo and Jodiann Tenney.

The meeting quickly focused on the concerning, if not dire, state of the volunteer emergency services in town. Litchfield Volunteer Ambulance Chief John Pudlinski and Bantam Fire Company Chief Ryan Litwin laid out the challenges facing the groups.

In short, volunteerism is decreasing while calls are increasing. The change is happening rapidly, with Pudlinski saying that the number of certified EMTs across Connecticut has dropped from 18,000 to 13,000 across the last two years alone. In Litchfield, calls are on the rise due in part to an aging population, and now it’s expected there will be north of 1,450 calls this year.

“EmergencyMedicalServices systems as we know them today cannot be sustained as they are,” Pudlinski said. “People do not want to do this job. … The world of volunteerism unfortunately does not exist anymore.”

Morosani has a personal interest in the matter, as he is a member of the Northfield Fire Company. He said this is the first year they’ll clear 300 calls – whereas when he joined eight years ago it was rare to break 200.

“One thing that I would also say being from the Republican side of the aisle is that we're often very cost conscious as a matter of principle,” Morosani said. “I will say that both for EMS and for Fire, if you think things are expensive now or the solutions we're discussing now are expensive, wait until you see what happens if we let the problem fester and are forced to deal with the only options that will be available at that point. So we need to take ownership of this problem.”

From a staffing standpoint, part of the issue is that most of LVA’s volunteers do not reside in Litchfield, and that they might seek out better-paying jobs closer to where they live.

There is also more of a broad scale issue impacting the groups in that insurance reimbursements almost always create a deficit for the emergency services. Pudlinski said each call is billed at $900, but they only get about $300 per call from Medicaid and $484 for Medicare. Private insurance tends to reimburse at roughly 80 percent.

Ultimately, the board agreed to establish an agenda item to discuss the creation of a public safety committee to try to get ahead on some of the issues.

Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) Chris Levesque also gave a budget presentation, highlighting what will be a $16 increase per equivalent dwelling unit. Levesque said that the charges increased because of plant capacity restraints and consultant recommendations. Those new rates cover previously unbilled services.

Rapp, in offering her updates, said that she is in contact with Troop L for a long-term Resident Trooper replacement with incumbent Jim Holm out three-to-four months.

She also said that the four first selectmen in Region 20 met with Superintendent Jeffrey Villar and CFO Julia Cardillo to devise a way to pay down the district’s operating deficit, currently capped at $2.3 million.