If you hit the link above (the blog title), you'll see an article from the Mukwonago Chief regarding the fire department. The article is OK, but the comments are infuriating to me. Below is my response.
Ironically, today is my brother Johnny’s birthday. He would have been 45 today. When he was 37 yrs old he died in a house fire because of slow/unconcerned response from his local fire department. The danger of a lack of a cohesive and responsive department is real. Our department has been gutted. I’m confident that with new leadership it’ll rebuild, but right now we’re in a shambles. Anyway, in response to the comments after the article, I had this to say:
In response to criticisms of me and others in the above comments, I must say that the commenter has completed ignored any points that I have made in the past. I have simply stated that I disagree with splitting the joint fire department because it will 1) harm our community by creating a divide when we should be finding ways to work together, and 2) it’s going to cost us a TON of money. These opinions are well documented on my blog: afterthewakeup.blogspot.com
I told you so….
1) If you can’t see the harm that has been caused by the rift in our community, then you are not paying attention. Since this is a matter of opinion and the town board and some others just doesn’t care, then I’ll leave this issue alone.
2) On the matter of money, this HAS cost us LOTS of money. The easiest way to see this is that in order to not raise our taxes, the town board has dipped into our cash reserves to the tune of about $190,000 which will result in cash reserves much less than is recommended for a community our size. If you want to get into more detailed analysis, look at this: It was estimated that the joint department had a value (equity) of about $2.4million. Roughly 85% of that should belong to us in the town, or about $2million of it. In the dissolution of the department we received about $1million in equipment and about $500,000 in cash from Big Bend. So we LOST $500,000 in equity! ($2m - $1m - $0.5m = $0.5m) This is simple math. Never mind the $70,000 +/- in legal and consulting fees we’ve spent.
Please don’t let the facts get in the way of your comments though. Continue to attack anyone that doesn’t agree with the board or who might bring up valid reasons why we shouldn’t be going down this road.
Oh, almost forgot, on the matter of the $150,000 the fire board has been “sitting on,” the commenter has once again not let the truth get in the way of the comments. Most of that $150,000 is money that is invested in interest bearing accounts and came from donations from citizens for specific purposes. You know, someone died and left $30,000 to the department for, say, a training tower. Should we just now grab this money to spend against their wishes? Legally we CAN; but rightfully we CANNOT. If someone in my family left money to the department for a specific purpose and it was grabbed by the town board to cover the cost of this fiasco, I would have a real problem with that.
But once again, let’s not let facts and what is right get in the way of what we want.
I’m really tired of this BS! We have about six or eight fools destroying our community.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
No Plan Yet - REALLY!!!
Are they listening? I think not. Come let them know how you how you feel:
November 4th at 6:30pm! This is the annual budget hearing.
So here we are in November of 2010 a mere seven weeks from the dissolution of the fire department as we have known it for years. Vernon has not even given us a clear picture or how they will assemble a fire department in these last few weeks. I even saw a flyer signed by Supervisors Craig and Bird that has the gall to claim that all is well. I must be one of the “misrepresenters” referred to in their flyer, because I don’t believe them since they have not shown anyone a plan for service. Having turn-out gear and pagers is not a plan.
In addition, they state they offered the Village FULL services for $97,500. This is true, but the Village can provide their own service for less and not have to deal with these jokers. Even last year, their cost was less than that. Their total cost in 2010 was about $88,000. Don’t take my word for it, make the call to the village clerk and find out for yourself.
That issue aside, the issue at hand is the Town budget which now includes the fire department budget. From my best examination there are the following issues with the budget:
1. The budget shows a shortfall of $187,000 being made up from the reserve funds. I see this as a problem, we have not have any good reason to tap into our reserve. Why now? Do we have some unanticipated costs this year? Hmmmm.
2. In the fire department budget, there is a line item estimated at $140,000 for public charges for rescue runs. This is down $10,000 from the 2010 budget line item of $150,000. In the three year period from 2006 to 2008, the Village of Big Bend consumed 17.17% of the recue runs. So, shouldn’t this revenue number be down by about 17%? I think so, it should be nearer to $125,000. That’s a difference of $140,000 - $125,000 or $15,000. In addition, with the loss of Big Bend, we also lose the ability to invoice from about a third of the State Highway charges. In 2010 these charges were estimated at $20,000, the current Town Board has included an estimate of $18,480 in the budget. It just seems too high to me. A quick check on the actual 2010 charges shows that the fire department will fall well short of the $150,000 estimated for 2010. So already, I guess there is a shortfall of about $25,000 in the budget for 2011 for the Vernon Fire Department.
Anyway, there is more, I suggest you come to the meeting and hear the details for yourself. Maybe stay after the meeting and quiz those that make brash statements. Have them give you the facts. To be honest with you I’m busy and I’m tired of fighting with these guys, I’m not entirely sure I’ll be there. I leave that night for deer hunting in Minnesota with my son.
Here’s a radical idea: Why don’t Tom Bird and Bill Craig make a flyer that outlines exactly what our fire department staff, equipment and training will look like next year? We have had lots of problems and from what I see they haven’t made much progress. Looks like our department leadership is the same as it was two years ago, but we’ve lost a lot of our trained staff. Give me an organization chart with names in positions and a list of equipment. Some outlines of how we’ll staff a structure fire and what equipment might be there. You know; a plan!
No, they’d rather spend their time saying that folks like me that question them are providing “misrepresentations and deceptions”. Ugh! Just give us the PLAN!
November 4th at 6:30pm! This is the annual budget hearing.
So here we are in November of 2010 a mere seven weeks from the dissolution of the fire department as we have known it for years. Vernon has not even given us a clear picture or how they will assemble a fire department in these last few weeks. I even saw a flyer signed by Supervisors Craig and Bird that has the gall to claim that all is well. I must be one of the “misrepresenters” referred to in their flyer, because I don’t believe them since they have not shown anyone a plan for service. Having turn-out gear and pagers is not a plan.
In addition, they state they offered the Village FULL services for $97,500. This is true, but the Village can provide their own service for less and not have to deal with these jokers. Even last year, their cost was less than that. Their total cost in 2010 was about $88,000. Don’t take my word for it, make the call to the village clerk and find out for yourself.
That issue aside, the issue at hand is the Town budget which now includes the fire department budget. From my best examination there are the following issues with the budget:
1. The budget shows a shortfall of $187,000 being made up from the reserve funds. I see this as a problem, we have not have any good reason to tap into our reserve. Why now? Do we have some unanticipated costs this year? Hmmmm.
2. In the fire department budget, there is a line item estimated at $140,000 for public charges for rescue runs. This is down $10,000 from the 2010 budget line item of $150,000. In the three year period from 2006 to 2008, the Village of Big Bend consumed 17.17% of the recue runs. So, shouldn’t this revenue number be down by about 17%? I think so, it should be nearer to $125,000. That’s a difference of $140,000 - $125,000 or $15,000. In addition, with the loss of Big Bend, we also lose the ability to invoice from about a third of the State Highway charges. In 2010 these charges were estimated at $20,000, the current Town Board has included an estimate of $18,480 in the budget. It just seems too high to me. A quick check on the actual 2010 charges shows that the fire department will fall well short of the $150,000 estimated for 2010. So already, I guess there is a shortfall of about $25,000 in the budget for 2011 for the Vernon Fire Department.
Anyway, there is more, I suggest you come to the meeting and hear the details for yourself. Maybe stay after the meeting and quiz those that make brash statements. Have them give you the facts. To be honest with you I’m busy and I’m tired of fighting with these guys, I’m not entirely sure I’ll be there. I leave that night for deer hunting in Minnesota with my son.
Here’s a radical idea: Why don’t Tom Bird and Bill Craig make a flyer that outlines exactly what our fire department staff, equipment and training will look like next year? We have had lots of problems and from what I see they haven’t made much progress. Looks like our department leadership is the same as it was two years ago, but we’ve lost a lot of our trained staff. Give me an organization chart with names in positions and a list of equipment. Some outlines of how we’ll staff a structure fire and what equipment might be there. You know; a plan!
No, they’d rather spend their time saying that folks like me that question them are providing “misrepresentations and deceptions”. Ugh! Just give us the PLAN!
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