From the Day:
The town’s Representative Town Meeting voted Tuesday night to cut from the 2010-2011 budget any appropriation for the Groton Long Point police force.
Groton Long Point had requested $208,000, about 31 percent of its police budget, and the Groton Town Council included that request in the budget it passed last month. The request was a zero percent increase over the previous year, said Bob Congdon, president of the Groton Long Point Association.
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The RTM voted 19 to 17 in favor of eliminating the town’s share of police funding. John Scott, the RTM’s finance committee chairman, who introduced the motion to cut the police funding, said the cut was made because Kelly Fogg, chief of the town’s police department, has indicated the town could provide the same level of coverage to Groton Long Point for about the amount the town currently provides, a savings of about $400,000 to Groton Long Point residents.
When I was on the RTM I proposed cutting the GLP Police budget. I got one vote-mine. When I was on the Town Council there was substantial support for cutting the Groton Long Point Police budget, until it came time to actually vote, at which point, support withered. When I ran to keep the seat I was appointed to on the council (the only election I have ever actually won) the Republicans sent this to everyone living in Groton Long Point (I probably would have been top vote getter if they’d sent it everywhere):
I was honored to be attacked, and rather proud of the quote. It would be churlish of me to note that John Scott, now a Democrat, is listed as among the Republicans who pledged to protect the police. In truth, John had nothing to do with the pamphlet and I heartily applaud him for getting this through.
But John is being a bit disingenuous when he says that Groton Long Point residents will get the same level of services if they come over to the town. Who will check to see that their doors are locked when they’re on vacation? Who will make sure that no non-residents park on their roads, or, for that matter, drive on said roads? No, I’m sure what the Groton Town Police Chief meant was that she could provide the same level of services to GLP residents that she provides to other town residents, rather than the gold plated service we town residents have been subsidizing for years.
Am I feeling vindicated? You betcha! Hard times are good for something.
A bit of background for non-Grotonites: Groton Long Point is a rich person’s enclave within the Town of Groton. Most of the homes used to be summer homes, and it made sense, years ago, for the town to give the Association a little money to help with security, since it was actually needed years ago in the winter. These days, it is a year around community, and the subsidy has ballooned from about $6,000 in the late 60s to upwards of $200,000 today. Not even inflation accounts for that increase. The police department is notorious for treating outsiders (read: anyone not from GLP, including us Grotonites who help pay their salaries) like scum and for providing private security services to residents. For years the unwritten agreement was that the town would pick up half the cost of the police force, which of course meant that the GLPers spent twice as much as they would have otherwise, all the while packing Town budget hearings with people demanding low taxes and cuts to the education budget. Now they’ll have to pay for it themselves, or make do with the same level of services the little people get.
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