Time to ensure Federal Way firefighters are safe | Letter
Published 1:16 pm Friday, April 10, 2015
I’m submitting this letter as a personal request from my family, to my neighbors and the many friends we have made over the past 33-plus years as residents of this great and growing city to please vote yes on Proposition 1 by April 28.
Your yes vote is not only an expression of your personal support to upgrade our current level of firefighters’ personal safety and equipment readiness, but a strategic necessity to lay a firm physical as well as fiscal community support foundation. This community action will ensure their strategic readiness and tactical sustainability for many years into the future.
The last time we approved a voters’ bond for the fire service was 1992. We cannot afford to stretch it any further. A payment of $6.50 per month on a $250,000 home is a sensible and affordable investment for such a large and critical return.
As I have mentioned before, whether it is smoke, a stroke, or a deadly bee sting, to our firefighters it makes no difference; they respond with the same level of intensity — and they have saved lives. Now it’s beyond time for us to make sure they are safe. We owe them at least that much. It’s time to replace their aging equipment and to add new facilities to meet the challenging new responses of a growing community. To do so now is not only a community leadership imperative; it just makes good common sense. I shudder at the thought of seeing a fire engine broken down along the side of the road on the way to the scene of a life-saving emergency, or an unsafe fire-house collapsed in on a group of firefighters in a minor earthquake. It’s time now to act, not to react!
Again, please vote yes for Proposition 1 as soon as you receive your ballot. If you have any questions, please call the fire department. They will be more than happy to accommodate you. If you should miss them, please feel free to call me at 253-288-9004.
Bob McKenzie, Federal Way
