Editor’s note: Walter Casey, who recently moved from Darien, agitated vociferously for paramedics to be based in town for years before the town government agreed to them, after a town-hired consultant recommended them.
His letter here is in response to a letter from former Darien EMS-Post 53 Director Ron Hammer, published this week in the Darien Times, in which he says, in part, “If […] any resident wants to vote based simply on one’s work related to paramedics in town, she [Jayme Stevenson] deserves the credit for that one. No one else.”
It should be noted that when the consultants’ recommendation was made, Hammer did not oppose it and said he had not previously opposed it, and Stevenson, as first selectman, had not explicitly opposed them. She also supported having paramedics in town after reading and hearing the consultants’ recommendation:
To the editor:
A newcomer to Darien would not know enough and might actually believe Ron Hammer’s praise of Jayme Stevenson’s efforts to bring paramedics to Darien.
The exact opposite is true.
First Selectman Stevenson and former Post 53 Director Hammer did everything they could to stop paramedics from being stationed in Darien.
I first arrived in Darien in 1984 and only recently moved to be near my daughter after my wife passed. For most of those years, I was involved in Darien affairs. For the last eight years, I worked tirelessly to bring paramedics to Darien. The two people who worked hardest to stop paramedics were Hammer and Stevenson.
When a consultant mysteriously dropped the assignment to study whether paramedics should be based in Darien, Stevenson voted against hiring another consultant.
She was the only selectman to vote against continuing the study. Even her two fellow Republicans voted to continue. A new consultant was hired and concluded that paramedics should be based in Darien.
Denying Stevenson’s efforts to thwart Darien based paramedics is like denying Sandy Hook. Stevenson and Hammer should publish a correction and tell the truth.
In contrast, Selectman Rob Richards bucked the tide and fought for paramedics. Richards was the Selectman most responsible for paramedics being based in Darien.
Walter Casey
Marblehead, Mass.