By Daniel Drainville
The Day
NORWICH, Conn. — Ahead of a scheduled mediation session between the city and its volunteer firefighters, attorneys on both sides weighed in on what their clients hope to get out of the private meeting.
If successful, the mediation sessions would resolve an ongoing dispute over the city’s August 2025 establishment of Unified Command policy, and its action in February to shut down the Yantic volunteer fire department for failure to sign an agreement to the policy — both of which have resulted in lawsuits from the volunteers. The policy, which was announced by City Manager John Salomone and City Fire Chief Sam Wilson in August 2025, established a single command structure with Wilson at the top, and standardized training, communications and emergency response protocols for both paid and volunteer fire services in the city.
| EARLIER: Conn. city, FD agree to mediation in dispute over shutdown
Dates for two sessions have been scheduled. The first is scheduled to take place March 31. And the second, if needed, will take place April 7. Attorneys on both sides on Wednesday were asked about their expectations heading into the mediation period.
Our current focus is working toward a cooperative resolution via mediation,” City Corporation Counsel Aimee Siefert said in a statement Tuesday. “Meanwhile, the city has taken steps to ensure full coverage and fire service for all our residents.”
On Feb. 10, the city was granted a court-ordered injunction to enter the Yantic fire station to repossess city-owned fire trucks from the department, after Wilson claimed he was initially locked out. The department was served with a temporary injunction the next day, and the city reclaimed the trucks.
But on Feb. 20, the city’s taking of the trucks was met with a countersuit from Yantic, which sought an injunction returning the trucks to its possession. Three days later, Attorney Mark Kovack, who is representing Yantic and three other of the city’s five departments — Laurel Hill, Occum and Taftville — filed a lawsuit on their behalf, over the establishment of the 2025 Unified Command policy. The lawsuit questioned Wilson and Salomone’s authority to establish the policy, under the City Charter.
Both suits are currently in New London Superior Court, but proceedings were stayed earlier this month, halting actions on both cases, as both sides agreed to hold mediation sessions to try to resolve the issues in private.
All four departments have agreed to participate in the session “in good faith,” Kovack wrote in an email. He said as long as the mediation proceeds as scheduled, the volunteers will take no further action in either of the lawsuits. They will approach the sessions with an open mind, he added.
If no final resolution is made during the March 31 session but the volunteers see that meaningful progress is being made, they are open to continuing it to another session, or multiple sessions, Kovack said. But they will not agree to leaving Yantic shuttered. Kovack said that stipulation is based on volunteers’ contention that the department being closed comes at the expense of public safety and taxpayers.
Amid the shutdown, the city department has been operating a makeshift substation in Yantic at the 50 Clinton Ave. Public Works garage, staffed at all times by two paid firefighters and a paid lieutenant, housed in a trailer in the parking lot. According to an estimate prepared by Wilson last month, the cost of the substation is about $100,000 a month.
Kovack added that if such progress is being made, the volunteers “reasonably” expect the city, as a sign of good faith, to fully restore Yantic to service in the interim. If the mediation is unsuccessful, the litigation will resume, he said.
Attorney Siefert was asked the same questions as Kovack, and responded in a statement released by the PR firm working with the city. Siefert is the city’s corporation counsel, working with former corporation counsel Michael Driscoll and outside attorney James Williams, to represent the city. She said if successful, the mediation would resolve both the active lawsuits.
Siefert said the mediation will focus on finding “a resolution on the matter of a unified command structure in Norwich, and creating a consistent and reliable response standard across all departments.”
Salomone also weighed in on the mediation, stating that the city values its volunteer firefighters and wants them to be a permanent part of Norwich’s fire service.
“To that end, we have provided a clear contract that all volunteer departments can sign to continue operations in perpetuity, under a unified, professional command structure,” Salomone said, further indicating the city expects the volunteers to accept the Unified Command Structure. “The suspension of one company only took place after clear safety concerns were identified. We are confident that any fire company willing to meet basic safety benchmarks will be restored to active service, which is our desired outcome.”
Yesterday, The Day released a video showing a disagreement between city and volunteer firefighters while responding to a Jan. 27 fire call at 42 Town St. — at the restaurant 36 Town Grill & Tap . Additionally, dispatch transmissions showed Yantic accessed an alarm panel at the building in denial of orders from the city department. The call occurred about two weeks before Yantic was shut down.
The city has pointed to the incident as a clear example of Yantic’s failure to comply with the established Unified Command Policy, and that it compromised public safety.
Yantic Chief Bobby Allen on Tuesday explained that Yantic’s actions on the call — specifically mentioning its action to locate an alarm panel at the building, when it was told by the city not to — were the result of the department following its own standard operating guidelines (SOGs), which dictate its response to particular buildings such as 42 Town. He said the SOGs dictate that the second Yantic truck on the scene usually accesses the panel.
“We’ve covered that area since it was a swamp, Allen said of the 179-year-old department.
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