Hi; Some thoughts on fire hydrants. The money coming to Smith's campaign from Fire District 4 is a red flag folks. District 4 board meetings are on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at the fire house, Lets be there, we must also keep tabs on them, we must request to be on their next agenda. Rural folks beware, your taxes paid to fire district 4 will soon mostly benefit The Metropolis  of Shady Cove. Vic

  A contribution from FD4 to Shady Cove's water would be very short sighted, if not immoral.

There are 5000 citizens in fire district 4, Shady Cove with a population of 2300 is now 46% of the fire district. The 54% of the rural taxpayers will be left high an dry as Shady Cove changes the rules of fighting fires up here in the Upper Rogue.

  At that point when Shady Cove has it's fire hydrants, the skeleton 2 man crew that responds to fires today will be sufficient inside the city limits because of the then hydrant supply of water will be adequate for fires with in the city of Shady Cove.

The 53% of the rural fire district 4 taxpayers will then continue indefinitely with inadequate fire protection due to lack of manpower. The chance of a successful fire district 4 levy to finance adequate manpower for handling rural fires is then nil as the over taxed citizens within the Shady Cove boundaries will have no incentive to approve a fire Levy. Shady Cove residents will then have their fire hydrants in place, they have nearly 50% of the voters today, they are as close as can be to paramedic help, and by then will be quite over taxed, therefore a "NO" vote will come easy.

  Fire protection is only 10% of what fire district 4 does, by far the largest service provided and we should all appreciate is the paramedic help that they are first to respond to. We are down 3 personnel that were laid off due to the measure 50 fiasco a couple of years ago. One paramedic lost will always be missed as he was the best.

  Fire hydrants through out Shady Cove will help the fire district out as they are now short of manpower, but only within the city limits of Shady Cove. HOW ABOUT THE RURAL TAXPAYERS IN FIRE DISTRICT 4?    With only two persons responding to a fire, there is no one left to go fetch more water. This is also a limiting factor in the rural vast area that is FIRE DISTRICT 4. Can these rural folks ever expect to have equivalent fire protection from Fire District 4? Not with Shady Cove having a separate hydrant based fire protection system and as Shady Cove acquires the voting majority because this new public water will provide for that wonderful growth expected.

Quien Sabe   

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government." ---Patrick Henry

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