Clark Fork City Council is reverting to old days

After bringing in a highly experienced individual as fire chief and agreeing with that person to the pursuing of a "subscription fire service" the Clark Fork City Council now seems to want to revert back to the days of the bucket brigade. By the way, bring your own bucket.

A volunteer fire department offers no "perks" but does offer the volunteer ample opportunity to disrupt their personal lives, expose themselves to danger, spend numerous hours with training and only have the satisfaction of giving something to their community in return.

Under the guidance of Chief George Cordingly, the Clark Fork Valley Fire Department was modernizing and growing, which meant better service to the local residents, and was about to expand to include residents outside the city limits.

It's interesting to note that 80 percent of the volunteer firefighters reside outside the city limits and are still willing to participate in this without pay.

One of the issues that apparently upset the council was having a volunteer firefighter spend the night at the firehouse. Most volunteer fire organizations would love to have people man the station at night.

When there is a house fire, forest fire, vehicle accident requiring extrication, or a cat up a pole, does the city council think they can sound an alarm and have the good citizens of Clark Fork come running?

I'm one of the group that lives out of town and has a pager with me 24 hours a day to be ready to do my part. If Chief Cordingly gets rebuffed for trying to do something good for the community I believe the volunteer spirit will suffer greatly.

Why in the world would backbiting and a power struggle on the City Council lead to the destruction of a valuable emergency resource?

JEFFREY BOCK

Clark Fork