Letter to the Editor - the Fire Hall
The Fire Hall
Of all the insults flying around about the new fire hall, I think the
hardest one to read is the constant comparison to the new clinic. Am I
missing something here? Isn’t the clinic built with volunteer labour,
and financed by private donations, and not through our taxes? I’ve heard
it asked why we don’t mind funding the clinic, as it isn’t really
needed. I think you’ll find there’s a few people on the rock that think
otherwise. I’ve volunteered on that site and I’ve never worked with a
more friendly, professional and committed bunch of people, and saying
stuff like that just undermines everything those men and women are
putting heart and soul in to.
Some of the leading guys on that project were at the Permasteel
presentation with James Savage. At the end he invited questions, and the
builders from the new clinic asked him if he would be open to volunteer
labour help on this project. His answer was a resounding yes,
absolutely.
In fact, they welcome community help, as it speeds up the project and
helps keep costs down. I don’t think there was anyone in the room that
was not impressed with his open and accommodating manner, which makes it
even harder to read that the fire trustees won’t even consider his
proposal.
So think about this, these people are spending our money, and we submit a
cheaper alternative, and they won’t even look at it. This is not very
democratic guys. These buildings are good enough for other gulf islands,
what makes us so special?It’s really annoying that every time I hear
the argument trying to justify spending millions of our dollars, they
use the old “look how much you’re saving on your house insurance”
banter. What makes you guys think everyone has house insurance? I look
at insurance companies the way I look at every other corrupt destructive
conglomerate, and I want to give them money about as much as I want to
give these guys my money. No, I’m not very lucky, I’ve never won the
lotto, I’ve never been left any money, or given any money or found a
genie in a bottle. I just work and have a lot of stress, sleepless
nights and who knows how many ingested toxins. As much as I would love a
civil service job for my remaining years, I know it ain’t going to
happen, so my savings are all I have.
I’m not quite sure why these trustees are trying to raise our taxes for
this fancy hall, but I’ll bet a pound to a penny, they are all very
wealthy people, and a couple hundred bucks a year would go unnoticed,
just like all the other folks I’ve noticed on a “just give them the
money and shut them up” letter writing campaign; but know this people,
we’re about to enter in to the biggest recession this world has ever
seen or witnessed, and if you think because you have a job or even a
pension that you will be isolated from the coming chaos, think again.
Looking back at California’s near bankruptcy in 2010, one of the first
austerity cutbacks the governor made was to the fire departments. Those
too were raising taxes way over the rate of inflation, which was another
nail in the homeowner’s coffin forcing many to walk away from the one
thing in life that should be a right, not a privilege.
So guys, just stop OK? You’re driving a wedge between the haves and the
have-nots on this island, and I promise you in the next few years, the
last thing on your mind will be whether you have glue laminated beams or
just plain old steel ones. And to all the people in the fire
department or associated with them that stopped talking to me when all
this kicked off, grow
up.
~ Mark Shaw