To the editor:
Residents of the West Side, unite! As the citizens of Ninemile, Petty Creek, Alberton, Cyr and Fish Creek, we make up the West Side of the Frenchtown Fire District. We need to unite so our voice and our needs are heard back east in Frenchtown.
As many of you know, the Frenchtown Fire Board is holding an election on May 6. In this election two members of the Fire Board will be chosen. There are four candidates running for the two seats. Two of those four are West Side residents; Henry Kenck from the Ninemile, and Dee Woods of Alberton.
Although the needs of the West Side are the same as those of the East Side - fire protection, emergency medical response, and rescue – our resources are vastly different from theirs.
If a person in Frenchtown or Alberton has a heart attack, volunteers from the fire department are only minutes away. Resident fire fighters are only minutes away. And paid firefighters, who are Advanced Life Support trained, are only minutes away.
But what if there weren’t any volunteers around? What if our resident fire fighters left for a program that sends them around the country to fight wildfires? What if our paid fire fighters left for higher paying jobs in Missoula or Kalispell?
Residents of the East Side are lucky enough to be in close proximity to Missoula. They are only 10 minutes from having life-saving paramedics from Missoula. Those same paramedics are 20 minutes to Alberton, over 30 minutes to those of us in Petty Creek. That is an awfully long time to wait for medical care.
What would happen if there was a house fire during the daytime, when almost all of the volunteers are working or attending school in Missoula? If not enough firefighters respond to a house fire in Frenchtown, mutual aid fire trucks from Missoula Rural Fire District are only minutes away. Not so for those of us on the West Side.
Those of us on the West Side are totally dependent upon our fire department to provide all of our emergency services. There are no paramedics in Cyr. There is no mutual aid fire department in Fish Creek. We have the volunteers, the resident fire fighters and the career staff. Without any of the three we won’t have anything. So please join me and your next door neighbors in voting for Dee Woods and Henry Kenck for Fire Board. Ensure that the voices of the West Side are heard.
Troy Monroe, Petty Creek
To the editor:
An important election is almost upon us, and some of us have the opportunity to make a clear and loud statement. No, it’s not the Democratic Primary; it’s the Frenchtown Fire Board election.
Of the many items this letter could cover, the most important issue we see currently is Impact Fees. The Missoula County Commissioners have OK’d a plan to allow the Frenchtown Fire District to assess impact fees on new homes in the district as a means to pay for upgrades to the fire department without raising taxes on the current residents of the district.
The Frenchtown Fire District, a historically volunteer fire department, has seen emergency calls skyrocket in recent years. With 30 listed volunteers (only 12 of whom average 1 response a month) the call volume in recent years has been between 500 and 600 emergencies, most of these are medical emergencies where time is of the essence.
Due to the decline of volunteers the fire district has hired day-time firefighters and medical responders to respond to calls when the volunteers are at work in Missoula. As the call volume increases in the future, more paid staff, more fire trucks and more fire stations will be needed. Who is to pay for this?
Candidates Harry Kenck and Dee Woods believe that new residents to the district should pay their share of growth. They both support impact fees as a means of shifting the burden of growth from the current residents of the district, many whom already feel taxed out of their homes, to those who move to the district and expect the same services they received in their previous towns.
No matter how much the fire department tightens its belt, more people will need more services. It’s that simple. The question is; who’s going to pay for it? Us, or them? Impact fees are one way for us to continue to have great emergency service. And the best part is, it won’t cost us current residents a dime. That is why we are voting for Kenck and Woods.
Sara Monroe, Petty Creek
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