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10/24/2017 05:30 PMFred Dudek has dedicated much of his life to volunteerism. He moved to Killingworth when he was 11 years old and is now retired from Connecticut Light & Power and Northeast Utilities. He left town to join the Navy from 1969 to 1973 and has volunteered in town ever since returning.
He has been a firefighter for 44 years—serving for 17 years as fire chief—and since 1977 served as a medical response technician, which requires renewal every three years. Dudek, who grew up on a small farm in town after moving from Hartford, has volunteered at the Parmalee Farm since its inception and is a member of the Town Hall Disaster Recovery Committee and Town of Killingworth Senior Tax Relief Committee.
In addition, Dudek has also been elected to several town offices, serving on the Board of Tax Assessment Appeals from 1985 to 1989 and the Board of Finance from 1995 to 2003. He has been on the Board of Selectmen for the past 13 years and is now running for first selectman.
“It’s now or never. I’ve been on the board for 13 years and it’s time to step up or step back so I decided to step up,” said Dudek. “Because of my tenure on the Board of Finance and Board of Selectmen, it’s just a desk change. I can jump right in with both feet. I put in a lot of hours in anyways, so it’s a matter of transferring that over to the First Selectman’s Office.”
Should he be elected to office, Dudek plans to concentrate on efficiency and sharing services. As a longtime member of the Fire Department, he has seen the benefit of sharing equipment and resources and wants to see the concept applied to the town.
“If we come together as groups of towns to make purchases, we could get a better price on everything from sand and salt in the winter to paper goods and stationary,” said Dudek. “We can also share services like garbage hauling, tree cutting, and road sweeping for cost savings.”
There are several projects in town he would like to see complete, including making repairs to the modular building that is attached to the town office building. Three years ago, the BOS took a loan for repairs, but the repairs have not begun.
“We need to act now. The money is allocated, so let’s fix it,” said Dudek. “The post-and-beam town barn can be turned into usable meeting space very economically. I feel I can drive those projects and get them done in a short period of time.”
With the dire situation at the state budget level affecting all of Connecticut, Dudek stressed the importance of laying out a capital program for the next several years while keeping the mill rate stable.
“I was the selectman on the Emergency Operations Building Committee and we did that under budget and under prevailing wage and we got a very beautiful building for our emergency operations personnel,” said Dudek. “The answer to the state’s fiscal woes is not raising our property taxes and that is something I am fighting adamantly against.”
Dudek’s campaign is dubbed “Killingworth Values,” stressing neighbors helping neighbors and that volunteerism helps to keep taxes low. No matter what happens in November, Dudek said he will continue to give back to the Town of Killingworth.
“I will continue to volunteer, win, lose, or draw,” said Dudek. “It’s about giving back. In today’s day and age, everybody seems to want to take, but that’s why were in such dire straights in state of Connecticut. People have to start giving back. I care about the community, what happens to the community, and I care about the people in the community.”