Recently councilor Alderson criticized candidate Dan Garrick for not favoring forming a countywide fire district. This spring I was very much in favor of forming a fire district when the city was struggling with the burden of managing an ambulance service. At that time I felt forming a district was the best way to utilize the efficiency of having dual trained firefighters and EMTs. The incentive was to put the ambulance service under the management of a district board, allowing them to capture the revenue stream generated by providing ambulance service. Those conditions no longer exist. I pleaded with city council to keep the fire department whole continuing to provide ambulance service long enough to pursue creating a district. My pleas along with those of the majority of citizens was ignored. Now that the city fire department no longer provides ambulance and has lost a significant portion of their dual trained staff it doesn’t make sense to form a district. The city has an understaffed fire department relying more and more on volunteers, the only thing the city did retain is the same 1.2 million dollar liability to fund the department. Now councilor Alderson wants to use the county rural fire departments and the County Chair position to fix the mess. I strongly urge everyone to vote for Dan Garrick for county commissioner position 3.

Kody Justus

Baker City