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About Saving Lives

I am writing to express my support for the acceptance of the SAFER Federal Grant recently awarded to Guilford to improve public safely by hiring additional EMT and fire personnel.

For some time, the residents of North Guilford have been at a disadvantage due to our distance from police and fire headquarters located near I-95. We have a wonderful North Guilford firehouse and many dedicated volunteers, but over the 41 years I have lived on Great Hill Road, the number of volunteer EMTs and firefighters has been reduced due to aging and changes in our society. This has resulted in an average emergency response time of 12 minutes for calls north of Route 80. I have been told by town officials that fully 30 percent of all emergency calls are now from addresses north of Route 80.

A member of our church, North Guilford Congregational, had a heart attack on a Sunday morning two years ago and help did not arrive for 14 minutes. That is far too long! If the ambulance came from the North Guilford firehouse, response time would be five minutes.

North Guilford residents are in a more rural area than downtown, and the homes are farther apart. We have hundreds of school children at Melissa Jones every day, plus North Guilford Nursery School and the two very active churches. There are also large numbers of townspeople that use Lake Quonnipaug, especially for swimming during the summer and for fishing year-round. Crew teams from Choate and Guilford High School also use this wonderful resource.

I strongly urge the Board of Selectmen to accept this grant and fully staff North Guilford. This is about saving lives. We pay our fair share of taxes and deserve equal town services.

Cynthia Damer

Guilford