A new shiny fire engine?
GilfordGrok welcomes contributor ITObserver, who writes:
A shiny new fire engine.
Just goes to show, 2 yr-olds do get elected to town hall...
Always nice to see our civic leaders spending $350K for our safety. Well, not that they paid for it. In reality a 20yr bond means our kids will pay for it, and todays politicians will enjoy the hidden and personal kickbacks.
So, you're spending $350K on a shiny new truck. And you'll use it for parades and bonfires at the local football games. Did anyone ask? Does it fit in the existing firehouse? Or is the whole point to get a new firehouse because the old one is too little, and doesn't have an Olympic size weight room?
Instead of sitting around washing your truck and dreaming up new ways to spend your kids money, why not install smoke detectors and sprinklers in every house? Its cheaper, and doesn't require a big honking truck putting ruts in residential streets. Assuming it does fit the existing side streets, have you thought about banning
Street parking? No sense buying a shiny new fire engine just to find out everyone parks on the street and you still can't get to the house. Makes sprinklers seem like the smarter investment already, and installing sprinklers helps Joe.Public save on his homeowners insurance. Of course, with everyone having a sprinkler, you won't need a shiny new fire engine, so you may not need a paid full time fire department either. Now that's saving some real money. hmmm - a shiny new fire engine, or cutting taxes - oh the difficult choices you must make.
If its really that important to you, put your money where your mouth is. Find 35 families (or businesses) willing to take out a $10K home equity loan. I'm willing to bet you won't find the selectmen or anyone on the fire engineer board willing to walk the talk.
Perhaps it could double as a school bus..at least the kids will get some use outa what they'll be paying for.
