Pay more taxes or don’t complain

My out-of-pocket property taxes were $1,338.50 in 2007 and $274.60 in 2009. That means I paid only 21 percent in 2009 that I paid in 2007. For the city, township and county (only), I paid only 38 percent in 2009 that I paid in 2007.

How does anybody expect that the city administration, city/county council or commissioners can maintain the same level of employees, services, pay and benefits with this huge reduction? To say nothing about those entities that are behind in their past tax payments and have not (or will not) be able to pay current assessment!

My heart goes out to them and my prayers are with them as they strive to lead this city and county during these hard times. I am glad that I am not in their seats of government at this time! They are darned if they do anything and darned if they do nothing. A no-win condition!

Many city firemen feel abused by Mayor Goodnight due to layoffs in the department and they have many civilian supporters, as is evident by many yellow signs all over the city and county. They are raising hell all over the place about public safety and fire department manpower. The real problem is that for many years they have come to believe that they are elitist, with guaranteed lifetime jobs and pay with yearly (almost) increases in both pay and benefits. They are not operating in the real (today’s) world but expect that needed reductions be placed in all other departments but theirs. NIMBY is their favorite word when it comes to the fire department.

I suggest that to save firemen jobs that they, with their yellow-sign friends, do the following. Subtract your 2009 tax owed from your 2007 tax paid. Then send half of your savings to the city or half each to the city and county. That may help the city and county to rehire laid-off workers. Stop badmouthing and constructively strive to lighten the burden of government and help get those you are concerned about back to work!

Next, the city and county should enact legislation that would require that all future public safety employees must live within the city or county. The unions will raise hell, but that is what they do best in my experience! Let them rant and rave, but try to do it anyway!

Harold R. Hjelmeland

Kokomo

Volunteer squads can be undependable

This is in response to the gentleman who wrote in to the Tribune about firefighters and his questions about why firefighters work 24-hour shifts. There are many differences between a volunteer firefighting force and a paid department.

Please consider response time. As soon as a paid department receives a call, they start heading to their response vehicles. The fire is then radioed as cleared; the trucks then immediately leave for the fire. A volunteer force has to drive to the station, get into their vehicles and then clear the fire via radio. Usually the driver is the only person on the vehicle when it leaves the station. The other firefighters show up at the fire in their own vehicles. Whenever enough personnel show up, they begin fighting fire.

The volunteers break open windows and pour water in the windows or doors. A paid force arrives at the scene and immediately does several things at once. Search/rescue. Shutting off utilities. Making entry into the house through the unburned side and ventilation. This interior attack reduces water damage and controls the fire sooner. That is why a paid force requires so many people at the start.

The conditions inside the house can exceed 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Response times are critical in fires, as the fire size doubles every 75 seconds.

As for why we sleep at the station, most fatal fires occur after 11 p.m. I believe that the stations being manned constantly certainly allows for reduced injuries and deaths. The reason firefighters have 24-hour shifts? I don’t know, tradition possibly. That is the way they started departments a 100 years ago. In big cities like New York, they have eight-hour shifts.

Volunteer departments, as good as they are, can be undependable. I remember Christmas Day 1978, my first year on KFD, there was a fire call to Vinton Woods subdivision around noon. The fire was dispatched and I heard it on the scanner in the fire station kitchen. The fire had to be dispatched three times before the fire was cleared via radio by the volunteer department assigned to that area of town. The time between the fire being dispatched and the first truck arriving to the scene was 12 minutes.

I know that this is not the usual response time, but it indicates that volunteer service is not the same as a paid department. Vinton Woods is now covered by the KFD. The KFD fire trucks can make it to Vinton Woods in less than two minutes, by the way.

Charles Smalling

Kokomo