Trustee Mitchell Responds to Ambulance Question 

Trustee Mitchell Responds to Ambulance Question

By Watertown Trustee, Ken Mitchell

I was not surprized at the articles in the paper today. The Independent/Dewitt Bath Review chose to not include many comments I made at the meeting. I guess the only way to get my view out is here. 1) I do not support Mercy as our transport service at this time. 2) I do not support any type of millage to cover ambulance or fire. 3) I have a real issue with a for profit company using a building and facilities built with my tax dollars for their profit. 4) I remember Mercy saying a long time ago that they were loosing money providing service to Watertown and that they stuck with us because they knew they would make it up in the end, is that now? 5) How convienent that Deb sits on a committee that reports savings then when in public she says that the numbers are wrong. If that is true then using her figures we will be saving $17,000 instead of $20,000. Isn't that a good thing to save taxpayers dollars? 6) What positive thing has this fire board done since Deb & Al have taken over? We lost the agreement with LCC for free staff in exchange for free training, we lost a couple of very professional firefighters, We lost the respect from area communities as being at the front of the curve in public safety. If we keep this up we will loose the very people who make our department function the way it does. You can't keep so much uncertainty going on and expect people who work full time at LGRFA to pass on better more stable employment. If they leave, we end up with a nice building and nobody to run anything. The paper forgot to include the cost cutting suggestions being worked on like selling the rescue rig to be replaced with an ambulance. Things like that are major. I asked Mercy to specificaly respond to two questions. First, I want to know how they plan to make their response times the same as LGRFA. Second, I wanted to know how they plan to cover the $17,000 - $20,000 savings that the authority would see by going with their own transport. No where in todays articles did I see that issue brought up or asked. The ad-hoc committee brought some good information to the table but why was it disputed at a public meeting by one of the very people who created it. Keep in mind that it was only disputed by 1 of the members. The public needs to keep up on this. My fear is that people will eventually erode the department and that the public safety of our community will be greatly affected. Remember that the catalist for starting the department at least for me was the tragic deaths of members in our community. Don't let a few change the safety of our community, Ask questions and write letters. The current board feels that the only way we will know if there is support is if we have a millage vote & it passes. This is bunk. Why have a millage vote when you don't need the additional funds. Remember, it could be your house, or family effected. Don't let this slip on by. Even a small letter voicing your opinion could mean the difference.