May 15, 1989

Dispute ridiculous

       I wish to commend you for bringing to the front page a matter of great concern.  Indiana is one of the few remaining places (much to our shame) where in a lot of emergencies one does not necessarily receive the closest help.  It borders on ridiculous that we as citizens permit fire houses to be built back to back and facing different directions.  This is a grossly inefficient method of providing services and a great waste of taxpayers’ money.  How long we as a citizenry will permit this territorial quibbling over jurisdictional boundary lines between fire departments is hard to say.  It would seem a simple thing to expect that when my house in on fire or my child is choking and I call for help, I will be receiving the closest available help.  This is rarely so and most people do not find this out until after the phone call for help is made.

         Chief Howard Bennis has many other options available to him, automatic mutual aid, contract coverage, etc., besides building a fire station within a mile of an existing one.  Either of these two options would save the taxpayers large amounts of money and allow him to build a fire station further west, where in just a few short years, there will once again be a crisis of coverage.  I for one do not care to pay higher taxes because the fire departments in this county cannot plan together for the better placement of fire stations and response areas.  One only has to look at nearly anywhere else in the nation to find examples of county wide planning and response among fire departments.  It is time we, the voters, held our fire chiefs and elected officials responsible to bring organization and foresight to providing responsible emergency response.

James Campbell - Greenwood
 
 

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