Just heard on the local news–fire departments are going to try to start charging for coming to motor vehicle accidents. This is happening in Ansonia, CT, but evidently fifteen Connecticut towns have signed on to pass legislation for this ability to charge.
We pay taxes for these services. The taxes, they claim, are not enough to pay for a $300,000 firetruck, nor a 250-man crew (Ansonia is a small town of 7,507 households, total population is 18,554). The estimated charge is approximately $375 for the first hour at an accident, and the driver will be charged this amount.
I’ve been a volunteer ambulance EMT in a small town, for which services were never charged. I live in a small town where only last year was there a need to supplement weekends with a paid service because of lack of necessary volunteer personnel. But our taxes pay for these services and we’re gracious enough to offer them to any out-of-towners who unfortunately need them while passing through.
Something like this outrages me. We don’t need another freakin’ baseball field. Put the money into necessary emergency services instead.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
Well, phooey. I just wrote a nice long response, but the comment box suddenly refrehed itself and everything disappeared. My fault i expect. Point is, i definitely have sympathy with the plight. Our county, which had a surplus of funds not long ago, is currently bankrupt due to mismanaged funds by our county executive, comptroller, and so on. All public parks and beaches closed, all dmvs closed but one, police and fire depts cut to below minimum, and so on. The money need to operate was there – they just had no clue how to prioritize where the funds went and spent too much on idiotic projects. In reaction to the bankrupty, they cut thousands of jobs willy-nilly – and recently found out the revenue many of those services were bringing in came to more than the money saved by cutting the jobs. Asshats.
Why is it so easy to see the problems when we’re affected but not in charge, and yet so difficult to find the obvious solutions when we (?) are?
It’s maddening to see the waste of funds on silly things or some fat cat while necessary items and services are slashed or charged for.
Sorry about the comment box–it was probably just the steam coming out of my ears that melted it before you were through!
As a freak-baseball-mom…there’s never enough fields. Baseball, any sports…involving kids…it’s a good thing.