A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears)

by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

proposals to pay for a modern fire station before finally approving $25,000 in 1993. As part of that deal, the volunteer emergency responders were required to “donate” $15,000 to the project. The station was the last major capital program approved by town voters, and it would become the place where things happen in Grafton—not only for emergency responders, but for the entire town, which uses it as an official meeting space. Though it now operated from a reasonably modern building, Grafton’s fire department never received funding on par with neighboring towns. In 2019, Enfield spent $220,000 on its fire department and ambulance services. Canaan spent $261,000. Grafton spent $29,000. But the volunteerism that once allowed Grafton to fight fires on the cheap has been waning. These days, when a fire truck first arrives at a fire scene, it is often empty of firefighters, save for its single volunteer driver. The driver is also the new fire chief—who, after recruiting some libertarian firefighter volunteers to the department, had earned the post on an 8–2 vote in 2007.