Fire meeting is a good first step
November 10, 2009
By Administrator
We are pleased that city officials and members of the Eastside Fire & Rescue administration are entering into discussions next week.
Officials from both groups have been at loggerheads over a host of issues that boil down mostly to money. Both sides are right.
Fire and emergency protection services are an area where municipalities can not afford to skimp.
However, for the city, fire service is only one part of a larger budget picture and Sammamish officials must balance dozens of critical services.
The ever-increasing costs of fire service, at a time when Sammamish is seeing its revenue streams dry up mean something has to give.
Hopefully, the groups can work something out. EFR has done a great job serving the citizens of the region and their expertise is unquestioned.
Yet, if Sammamish can provide that same level of service at a lower cost to its taxpayers, city officials would be remiss in their duties if they didn’t consider that option.
Next week, officials from both groups plan to open discussions about the future of Sammamish and EFR.
Now that elections are over, we hope that everyone can hash out the best way to move forward for the people of Sammamish and the region at large.
We are pleased that city officials and members of the Eastside Fire & Rescue administration are entering into discussions next week.
Officials from both groups have been at loggerheads over a host of issues that boil down mostly to money. Both sides are right.
Fire and emergency protection services are an area where municipalities can not afford to skimp.
However, for the city, fire service is only one part of a larger budget picture and Sammamish officials must balance dozens of critical services.
The ever-increasing costs of fire service, at a time when Sammamish is seeing its revenue streams dry up mean something has to give.
Hopefully, the groups can work something out. EFR has done a great job serving the citizens of the region and their expertise is unquestioned.
Yet, if Sammamish can provide that same level of service at a lower cost to its taxpayers, city officials would be remiss in their duties if they didn’t consider that option.
Next week, officials from both groups plan to open discussions about the future of Sammamish and EFR.
Now that elections are over, we hope that everyone can hash out the best way to move forward for the people of Sammamish and the region at large.
Comments
One Response to “Fire meeting is a good first step”
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I challenge our city government to show how they can provide the same level of service as EFR for less money! It has to be complete fiction. We pay less than 70 cents per thousand assesed value, for top notch service. How would our city do it cheaper.
EFR provides cost effective service because the costs of providing staff, training, administration, equipment, and maintence are shared. They are shared by all the taxpayers served by EFR. For our city to try to duplicate that, and claim that they can do it cheaper seems impossible.
It is my fear that the one and only purpose of starting our own FD is to have control of the money now used to pay for our fire protection. With that control, YES our city leaders can save money, but only by CUTTING service. Why else would they want to spend more for the same level of service?