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By MATTHEW HIGBEE
Connecticut Post Online (Bridgeport, Connecticut)
SEYMOUR, Conn. — First Selectman Robert Koskelowski has declared the town’s 30-year lease agreement with the Seymour Ambulance Association null and void and authorized the town attorney to draw up a new agreement with new terms. “It is outdated and the lease is being violated,” Koskelowski said.
According to the 30-year lease agreement signed with the town in 2003, the association rents its headquarters in the former Police Department building at 4 Wakeley St. for $1 a year. The lease stipulates that the town, through the EMS Commission, is responsible for paying the utility bills. But Koskelowski said he wants the association to pay its own water, electric and heating bills once it becomes financially stable. “I will work with them,” Koskelowski said. “All I’m trying to do is make it so we know who is responsible for what. The current lease doesn’t allow that to happen.”
Dominic Thomas, the ambulance association’s attorney, said the lease had made the town responsible for paying the utilities to offset the low annual stipend of $25,000 the town gives to the organization.
“That is far less than most other towns give their ambulance organizations,” Thomas said. “One cannot look at everything in isolation.”
Thomas added that while he was willing to discuss issues with the town, he remained convinced that the lease was valid.
Koskelowski also said the ambulance association had not lived up to lease terms that made it responsible for $600,000 in renovations at the headquarters.
The improvements, nearly finished, were paid for with a grant. But because the town administered the grant, Koskelowski said the town had essentially footed the bill. Thomas disagreed.
“No local taxpayer dollars were spent on this,” Thomas said.