The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 158, Ed. 1 Friday, May 3, 2002 Page: 5 of 20
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12
Friday, May 3,2002
The Baytown Sun 5A
.r-r
2-the two firefighters on the
flames. Once the fire is detect-
emergency. We should, also let
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P.O. Box 2241. Baytown, Texas 77522 Priscilla Dowlen, Treasurer
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• Lee College graduate
• 25 year.Baytown resident
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing -
UTMB Galveston
• Master’s Degree in Psychology -
University of Houston, Clear Lake
1997 “Community Builder” Award,
Goose Creek Masonic Lodge
1995 “Unsung Hero” Award,
The Baytown Sun
1993 “Community Service” Award,
Pilot Club of Baytown
1992 Texas Vocational Education Alumni"
. Award, Lee College nominee
1991 Today’s Woman" recognition,
The Baytown Sun
“Lee College is one of the best kept secrets in Texas! Attending Lee
College changed my life - as it has so many others. I am committed
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guess the firefighters feel so
man staffing that they .
r money and use ■
their time to inform the public.
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Houston Six Years in a Row... Tied m ?(X!1
s on f
fire grows iii intensity it con-
sumes i
someone is inside, the t
able air that is needed to sur-
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Continued from Page 4A
vehicles, or the use of a roving ments are unable to obtain the enacting a special interest pro- -----------
backup vehicle would comply staTTing they want to provide vision such as the proposed behalf. From the time a
with the rule. The truth is the iHpa1 ,Avcl nf
firefighters simply want more
firefighters on the job and in
the union, so they are now
pressing the safety issue,
claiming it would be safer for
them and the citizens if we had
more f u /
the city of Baytown. While this
is probably "true to a certain
the budget in check, but we are
talking about peoples lives, article in the April 17 issue of
. ... those same people who pay t' ...
...o o, ... whatever, taxes find subscribe tothis paper.’ department staffing
Baytown this runs the risk of delaying I hope .the firefighters gel their f-~ '■ A r.
their: response, if even for a extra manpower, and the city of League stated that cities that,
minute or two. Once these fire- Baytown can sleep a little better do — ‘ ‘ ‘
fighters arrive on scene there knowing they are protected.
is a dance that takes place Kenny Feameyhough FF/EMT-P ity and
which looks like chaos to the San Antonio able. The
untrained eye. The three fire-
fighters the city is content with Wake Up City Hall
havo thn fnllniA/inn inhc tn dw « B • <_» i
The firefighters are talking greater. Wake up, Cily Hall.
to the citizens of Baytown. The
signs are up in the yards I
tor governing the city for more
than 50 years, needing only
one set of amendments which
™p°sedTu ‘T “rn?the la,e Protected is better
1970s.,The firefighters union
points to the state constitution, than well-bugeted
I have read both sides of the
debate on amending the city
charter. The city feels this will
cause a tax increase, whereas
the fire department sees this as
a threat to their lives. As an
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budget issues.
how much extra protection can
we taxpayers
much is reasonable.
The few extra seconds saved
by a foui; man crew sound-crit-
ical, but thqre may be more
beneficial ways to spend the
money these extra seconds will
cost. According to the
Baytown Fire and Rescue
Services incident report for
2000 and 2001, building or
structure fires (the only types
of fires to which the “two in,
two out” rule apply) only
account for approximately one
and one half percent of all of
the runs made by fire depart-
ment personnel within that twb
year period. An argument
could be made that more lives
would be saved by spending
the money on additional
ambulance units in order to
improve ambulance response
time, as there are many more
ambulance runs made in a year
that affect lives, than structural
fire runs made by the fire
department. And remember
that structural- fires listed in
the incident reports include
every smoking frying pan and
similar minor calls. Calls
which actually involve flaming
buildings are even a smaller
percentage of the one and one
half percent.
Each year city council must
decide hard questions as to
what level of, services the city
can provide with the income it
has available. City council has
to balance all services it pro-
vides against its available
resources. This means that
almost every year, city depart- adopt bad government, and outsider looking in I have this
mpntR arp unship tn nhtain tho cnh/'inl-mlAwwi if, t
i as the prop<
the ideal level of service each Charter amendment is
department would like to offer, government. If the fire fight-
to year as the law changes, as getting the support
the revenue changes, and as n !*
the community’ s needs
change. The citizens are best dates that will give it what it
campaigning
----. ... ---------------„..gc. I don’t
want to be the man who finds remember seeing the police
officers out doing the same
actions for the CCPD. Maybe
make it out -of City Hall. In an
‘Z ■ A.a^;1 17
the Huntsville Item on fire
. a teport
from the Texas Municipal
) not meet recognized stan-
dards are subject to civil liabil-
1 can be held account.-
saine article had a
study df cities with less popu
lations than Baytown with file
department staffing equal or
Charles Murrell
Baytown
the city government keep its that takes two minutes, the dis
^1 Is 41 5 ♦ w , r> i I''»4 n,/-il, ZA 1 1
thereby eliminating the city's better respond to the changing call, confirm the validity of the the least, and I respect” the city’s
ing needs is bad government, provision that forces the most stations. And 911 operators
The Baytown City Charter has expensive solution upon the r ' ' ' ° 'r ' ”
been an excellent document tax payers is not the answer.
for governing the city for more Randall B. Strong ing
tTmn CIA trnorr nzvz'sl'tm D'1i4awh thic
set of amendments which
1970’s.,The firefighter’s union
which has several hundred
amendments as reason why
there is no harm in amending
the charter. In reality, the many
amendments to the state con-
stitution pushed by special
interest groups is one of the
main criticisms regularly made
of our state constitution. I
don’t think that having the city
of Baytown run more like the
t is an
...iprovement. Charters are
documents that lay down the
basic structure of government,
they are not intended to govern
day to day management and
budget issues.
The citizens of Baytown
t it wants
from city council, it needs to
> run and support council candi- „ „
wmiuwiuAciBU Hc iuu ~ ...sii !( able air that is needed to sur- to find any fire victims which Council has had ample time to
firefighters on staff with serve(^ bY letting our elected wants through the budgeting Vive is being gobbled by the by this tirfie may have run out draft an ordinance and post if
city council members make process. The firefighters say flames. Once the fire is detect- of oxygen. Could this be for the necessary readings and
those decisions every yearthey want to he able to better edr-someone-mtisDealHMT do avoided by liaving-arr extrr; then adrrpt-it-sinre^The frre^
Locking a minimum level of
service into the Charter for
only one select group, and
for arguments sake let’s say maybe, maybe not, but I don I for the charter chang<
fk-it ,!nr tbr, yfSnt tA Kp thp IHCin XX/Kn finHc riilULinihnr eonirlr, (I,
flexibility so that it also can patcher must receive the 911 out. This is a difficult job to say
flexibility to respond to chang- needs of the city. A charter call, and Sispatch the proper idea of keeping taxes low and because that money didn’t
never busy -right? If the fire-
fighters are involved in train-
or refueling, or \ ’
fhn -ftr-L
their response, if even for a
to say on the fire departments truck must stretch hoses, strong about the safetv issue ol
u.L.ir r? — .l. fire establish if there is a life haz- four '
bad begins there is only a few min- ard, determine the condition of spend their
------------ - —. utes of oxygen available in the the fire to enter or go defei
These needs change from year er's union doesn't believe ft- is -structure that's on fife. As tlie^ sive, to shut off utilities to the The City Council spends your
„ >i,„ l... ,i .... ■ c,... . house since water and electric money and your time tnissuen
more oxygen, ,and If ity don’t mjx, turn off the nat- proclamation against the peti-
:C is inside, the avail- ural gas, and then make entry tions of the voters. The City
.0 sur- to find any fire victims which r~—-n •—1 ■— -
city council members make process. The firefighters say flames. Once the fire is detect- of oxygen. Could this be for the necessary readings and
u 11 UC LU (1 CClldlll j ----- - cj i
degree, it would also be safer if based uPon that years needs, respond to the needs of a fire alert the fire department, and firefighter on the ' truck, fighters began
we had more police officers, ’ "f 'w- c-
more ambulance personnel,
more health inspectors, and
more street employees to
maintain the streets and signal
systems. The possibilities are
endless. Are we going to
amend the Charter to require a
police officer be on patrol in
every subdivision? Why not a
charter amendment to require
an ambulance stationed in
every neighborhood as well. If
we are going to increase fire
fighting staffing by charter
amendment, why not require
enough vehicles and fire fight-
ers so that we can keep a fire
truck stationed at every school,
in case the school caught fire.
Don’t we need to protect our
children and have fire fighters
on the scene of school fires as
soon as possible? All of these
arguments, including the . . -
claims of the fire fighter’s state government
union, prey on our natural imProvement- Cha
desire to have the most possi-
ble protection. All of tjiese
suggestions provide additional
safety to citizens and to
employees, but the question is
J , , , have made it clear that they are
afford, and how j » » • n ■
opposed to tax increases. It is
also clear that if this Charter
amendment passes, it will
result in a 2 cent to 3 cent
increase in the city's tax rate,
Qr el$e an equivalent amount
of service reductions in other
areas will have to be made.
The firefighter union claims
that this will be offset by sav-
ings in our insurance bills.
Apparently the fire fighters
have not looked at their recent
insurance statements, and seen
the dramatic increases in rates
that have hit homeowners. ||
Make no mistake, if the E
Charter amendment passes, it B
will take additional money out i
of your pocket. And what hap- i
pens if the state changes the i
“two-in, two out” rule, or tech- I
nological advances change the I
need for “two in* two out” I
'rule? For example, hopefully 1
in the future robotic devices I
may make it unnecessary for I
firefighters to enter a burning I
structure in many cases. Other I
cities will be able to assign fire ■
fighter personnel to other I
important functions, while I
Baytown will have its four ■
firefighters watching the
robotic device search the inte-
rior, because the City Charter
will require that four fire
fighters be present, no matter
what. ’.
Everyone wants to support
the firefighters, as they are
sometimes involved in danger-
ous situations. However, the
desire to support the fire fight-
ers doesn’t mean we should
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Cash, Wanda Garner. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 158, Ed. 1 Friday, May 3, 2002, newspaper, May 3, 2002; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1185129/m1/5/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.