The saga at our Sedona Fire District reminds me of an old classic western; “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
We have had shoot-outs, shout downs, flat-out character assassination and many other aspects that were prevalent in the Old West.
I digress: Let’s get to the good.
The Larson family had a major incident a few weeks back when the Sedona paramedics were called to my mother’s home. My mom didn’t feel well and was not sure what was happening. The paramedics arrived, were very professional and ended up transporting her to the emergency room at Sedona Medical Center.
She ended up checking out OK, just quite a bit of stress after my dad’s recent multiple surgeries. The paramedics were very well trained and handled my mom’s situation to the highest standards.
Now the bad:
It just doesn’t seem right that a motorcycle recently caught fire in an empty fire station in the Village of Oak Creek. But that is what happened, as a local motorcycle group was doing a fundraiser and one of their bikes caught fire in the station while everyone was out on another call.
Maybe it’s just me, but did everyone really need to be on a minor call when the chance of a major fire could have broken out at any time, much less in their very own firehouse?
And now for the ugly:
The latest recall effort against two of the Sedona Fire District board members was totally uncalled for. It was done by some very spiteful people that felt their “little old fire department” wasn’t being run in the manner in which they were accustomed.
They were used to the good old days, when cash was flush, tax revenue was climbing and the fire district spent money just as fast as it could.
These two new board members ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and were totally attacked, shouted down and harassed on a daily basis. All of this because they wanted to control the costs of the district, our tax money and to make plans for the foreseeable future where tax revenues were going to decrease and we were not able to fund anything and everything as before.
The fire board is a voluntary position sought by people that care about all Sedona residents. Sometimes, certain members will have a bias against another group, but all in all everyone is just trying to do their job.
Their job is to manage the fire district budget to the best of their ability and give the fire chief and his staff the necessary tools to address the paramedic and fire needs of our community.
Let’s hope this saga has a good ending.
Let’s hope the townspeople get what they pay for.
And last but not least, let’s thank all those men and women who serve our community every day in a very difficult situation.