Week in Review: Here's to a Lucky 2013!

This week began with us shaking off the snow and bundling up for cold weather after digging ourselves out of the 8- to 12-inches of snow that greeted us Sunday morning. Then, people busied themselves getting ready to usher in the New Year with all varieties of festivities and fun.

In honor of the New Year, we did a little review of the old year:

Most Read Stories on Ledyard Patch in 2012

The Businesses Ledyard Gained and Lost in 2012

The 10 Highest Property Sales in Ledyard in 2012

Patch updated you all on the Mayor’s potential cost saving plan to possibly outsource the town’s current police/fire/ems dispatch center.

The question is whether or not it’s more cost effective to service to another town. Currently, the dispatch center is located inside the Ledyard Police Station and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Comments on the story are overwhelmingly against the idea saying that public safety and first responders' safety will be compromised, that the sub committee in charge of the decision hasn't done its homework, (the yet to be known) savings aren't worth the risk and concerns for the current dispatchers jobs:

One Patch user wrote, “I would prefer that studies be made in response times, errors, dropped calls, etc between outsourced 911 systems and what we presently have. Can you show that it works better? As a resident I want to know if I have a true 911 emergency that I am going to get the fastest response time to address my issue. I don't want to be a guinea pig to test out a system whose success rate is undetermined.”

Another Patch user wrote, “Making quick and arbitrary decisions based on what the mayor THINKS he is going to save is not the answer. Farm out our dispatch to another town and when they raise the costs on us in several years don't say you weren't warned.”

And another wrote, “No one looking to outsource our 911 and Dispatch center are directly involved in emergency service operations within the Town of Ledyard or are daily users of the services the center provides!”

There were calls on the mayor to focus on attracting business and revenue instead of cutting services. People suggested other recommendations that would save money instead of doing away with dispatch, which were: reducing redundant positions and switching to a Town Manager style of government.

Patch also ran a profile on George Dieter, a Gales Ferry resident of more than 60 years.  You’ll find him in the George Dieter room in the Ledyard Senior Center most weekdays after 11:30 a.m. and the room is just a small token of the space in Ledyard that have his fingerprints on it.

Dieter is the founding partner of Dieter Land Surveying in 1951, which is now known as Dieter & Gardner, a land surveying, planning and engineering company on Route 12. He most likely surveyed and planned your neighborhood for development as well as most buildings and subdivisions in town!

He also worked on the Gold Star Memorial Bridge and both casinos and he says he has done “piles of stuff” in Stonington, North Stonington, Groton, Mystic, Waterford, and beyond.  Say hi if you see him, he’s very friendly.

Also, congratulations to the three finalists who read their speeches to Ledyard Rotarians; each one walked away with a prize. The challenge was to write a speech that incorporated the Rotary Club’s Four-Way Test and read the speech aloud to a room of Rotarians, who would then nominate the speech that best illustrates their guiding principles.

Best of wishes in 2013!