Comments on: Fire meeting is a good first step http://sammamishreview.com/2009/11/10/fire-meeting-is-a-good-first-step The Sammamish Review Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:59:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Robert Clayton http://sammamishreview.com/2009/11/10/fire-meeting-is-a-good-first-step/comment-page-1#comment-4988 Robert Clayton Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:45:24 +0000 http://sammamishreview.com/?p=8407#comment-4988 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? 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?

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