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The
other side of the story
A different perspective on the
Greenville Fire
Department issue
Editing
and Comments by Bob Robinson
One
of the things I love about an online news
and information service is it is not limited to a regimented format. I
received
a letter from a reader regarding the City of Greenville Fire Department
issue.
After reading it I felt it deserved more prominence than that of a
letter to
the editor.
It
was sent prior to Bob Rhoades’ column being
posted, so it was not in response to his comments. It is, however
another side
of the story. The reader requested his name not be published. After
checking
and verifying most of his information, I agreed.
Be
advised this is not my position. There are
many points in Bob Rhoades’ column that were not answered by
researching the
other volunteer fire departments, such as insurance company ratings and
consequently, costs of insurance coverage.
The
other side of the story…
Dear
Mr. Robinson,
I
have watched with interest the dilemma of the
City of
Greenville’s
budget problems.
One question that I think I can answer for people
that I have seen stated is “A city our size needs a full-time
Fire Department.”
I
looked at that statement and wondered how
true it was.
So,
by
doing a little research, I found that statement to be inaccurate.
By
actually finding out the answer to the question, I
think I can allay some
of the fears the
people of our city have by the proposed reduction in Fire
Personnel.
First,
depending on what is researched, you
will find
that
between 70 to 75% of all fire departments in the United States are
volunteer.
Some of the larger cities in America are
all volunteer and I will
list just a few
that I found.
My
purpose in doing this is to inform
the
public as to what can and is
being done in other places. The decision as to
whether the people think they need a full time department is for them
to
decide. The following cities have all
volunteer departments with their populations
listed after them:
Pasadena,
Texas – 150,000
Alexandria,
Virginia – 140,000
Meridian,
Idaho – 77,000
Dale
City, Virginia – 66,000
Rockville,
Maryland – 62,000
Bowie,
Maryland – 54,000
Kearney,
Nebraska – 40,000
Deer
Park, Texas – 33,000
And
finally, two cities about our size that have
made volunteers work for them:
Fort
Myers, Florida –14,000
And
Pierre, South Dakota, the State Capitol –
14,000
All
populations have been rounded off from the
latest census. As you can see,
it
is not necessary to have a full time department, it is a nice
luxury,
but a necessity, no.
A
faithful CNO reader
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