PLEASE SHARE
This should make people mad. I hope it does, this is why we need local control. First 6 AED's get given to Kingman, now we find not one paid firefighter even lives in the fire district.
We learned at the fire board meeting that paid fire fighters don't have to live in the fire district, That is not right.
Volunteers must live in Dolan Springs or Meadview, why not paid firefighters. Resident deputies are required to live in the area they serve.
Why should they care, this isn't their community. The property taxes they pay go to another fire district, or pay no property taxes to any fire district.
When they don't live in Dolan or Meadview the $500,000 in salary goes right to Kingman, the money isn't spent locally at D&D, Vinny's, the Dollar Store, and restaurants.
The worst thing is they know when they're out on a call and Dolan or Meadview are unprotected, their families have EMS and fire protection, because they live in Kingman.
All we heard from the firefighter who posted was about him. If he cared about Dolan and Meadview, he would live where here and works and pay tax to support the fire district.
I wondered why LMRFD never paged extra firefighters when the station was empty. Now we know, our paid firefighters live too far away. Why should they care?
Like the firefighter who posted, nothing was about Dolan or the people here, only about what he needed, and fires, nothing about EMS. Do a search for "firefighters don't fight fires"
All it would take is a major weather event, and the majority of our firefighters could be unable to make it to Dolan or Meadview to help us. There are washes between Kingman and Dolan that could close US93. A large fire like we just had in Mohave Valley could close roads leaving us without firefighters.
Are there not young guys like the guy at the meeting who wanted to volunteer, who need a job that pays $76,000 a year? If you work for the LMRFD you should be required to live in the fire district. This is why we need local control.
Again, you attack those who are actually doing something to help, and it isn't serving any good purpose. Mike Pettway, whom you repeatedly criticize for "speaking only of himself", was speaking from the perspective of the Firefighters themselves. Mike has lived in the Fire District for many years, and continues to own a business in Dolan. He only recently bought a home across the highway and is taking the necessary steps to get it annexed into the district. He and his wife, his brothers and his mother-in-law have been volunteers for the LMRFD since the 90's. One of his brothers was the last one remaining on the volunteer roster who showed up for fires. Mike shows up for fires, whether he gets paid for it or not. He is one of the few who DO care. Mike may not be eloquent or thorough in expressing all of the issues the Firefighters face or how they feel about it, but he puts his life on the line and takes action when needed. He shows up for fires whether on duty or not, and for the first year or so of our recovery plan, without any hope of getting paid for it. He is the lone Firefighter who, when off duty, goes to the station, gets an engine and responds to a house fire when the crew is out on another call. Don't even criticize the effectiveness of one firefighter on scene. He shows up and does the best he can with what he has to work with. What more can be expected of anybody, paid or volunteer? You owe another apology. By the way, "local control" will do nothing to bring in local Firefighters. Only stable, fiscally sound management has any hope of doing that. We lost the few local Firefighters we had when the LMRFD went insolvent due to fiscal mismanagement. Nobody worth a hoot will relocate here to live and work, with flaky governance in place. Flaky governance is what we got with "local control", because that is what was available to us out here in the middle of nowhere and the population base we have. Consolidation will provide stable and sound governance, as proven for us the last 2 1/2 years, and for the NACFD for the last 6 years.
ReplyDeleteYou said "Don't even criticize the effectiveness of one firefighter on scene". Don't you listen, it's firefighters who gave their lives to learn it takes 4 firefighters, or EMS on a call. Are you going to pay the OSHA fines for a dead firefighter or citizens?
ReplyDeleteYou said, "By the way, "local control" will do nothing to bring in local Firefighters".
Yes we need local firefighters and EMS, not someone who come out and helps the poor people of Dolan and go home.
You said "Nobody worth a hoot will relocate here to live and work, with flaky governance in place. Flaky governance is what we got with "local control", because that is what was available to us out here in the middle of nowhere and the population base we have".
We sure don't need people like you who think everyone in Dolan and Meadview are tweakers, thrives, and flakes. If that's what you think of the people from Dolan, why do you live here.
It's the attitude like yours that everyone in Dolan are to stupid to run their own fire district and we need Kingman to take care of us that's wrong.
I said flaky GOVERNANCE. I didn't say anything about tweakers and "thrives" I presume you mean thieves. You are the only one I have seen advertising that perception of our citizenry. I said we had flaky GOVERNANCE, which was proved by the results they obtained. As a matter of fact, the flaky chiefs came from out of our District. The facts are the facts and I have no control over them.
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ReplyDeleteWasn't Mike one of the flaky chiefs your speaking about?
ReplyDeleteYou didn't read the City Data on Dolan Springs? That's Where that came from.
So what are you saying the people from Dolan are not smart enough to elect people who aren't flaky to their fire board, or everyone here is so flaky we can't find anyone, so we need help from Kingman?
Mike didn't have any part in making financial decisions. That is what was flaky. I'm saying we don't have enough people, flaky or otherwise, interested in serving on the Board. We frequently ran short 1 or 2 people on the Board. Numerous times, Fire Chief Dave went around town trying to drum up someone to serve on the Board, just so they could have a legal meeting.
DeleteI've worked for several agencies and I've NEVER seen a fire board tell a fire chief that you need a couple 4-wheelers or other piece of equipment.
DeleteThe chief tells the fire board what he needs.
That's unless the board members were using the 4-wheelers for unofficial business, but that's another investigation.
What 4-wheelers? The LMRFD never had any 4-wheelers. Where do you get this stuff??
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