Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/76811
6A Daily News– Wednesday, August 1, 2012 Opinion DAILYNEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. 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The "arbitrary" lines that Mr. Gauthi- er referred to, is the State Responsibility Area which are lands protected by CalFire. I do not know the specifics on who presented the proposal, but the fee would be charged for every habitable structure in this desig- nated area. The original measure was approved by the legislature, Board of Forestry and Governor for new fire prevention pro- grams. How the money would be spent is unknown to me, but the Governor came out in the paper stating the money would go into the state general fund. In the past few years, CalFire has been forced to reduce their budget by millions of dollars, while employees had wage reductions, furloughs, increase cost in health and retirement contributions, and modification of their retirement formula. If the Governor's tax measure fails to pass in November, CalFire could face cuts in initial attack forces meaning a loss of fire engines, dozers, aircraft, fire stations or camps. Even with all these cuts, the money from the State Fire Tax will not go to offset these losses. This is in response to Tom that Tehama County Fire has jurisdiction for structure fires in the county and not CalFire. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or CalFire, is an all risk fire depart- ment. CalFire has responded to fires, floods, earthquakes, riots, epidemics and other missions the governor has tasked them with. CalFire also contracts with local governmental agencies such as Tehama County, and many other cities and counties throughout California, for fire protection. Over the years, the Tehama County Fire Department has continued to see a decline in fire stations. In the mid '70s, there were five county-funded fire sta- tions. Currently, Corning and Los Molinos stations are the last two county-funded stations, with El Camino Station being the last station cut for budgetary reasons. For several of those years, coun- ty fire engines were only staffed with one permanent employee. That is one person to fight a fully involved structure fire, or one person to perform CPR on a heart attack victim. That person is depending on volunteers to respond to help with the inci- dent. Volunteers do not staff sta- tions on a daily basis, and nor- mally don't sit around the station to wait for calls. They respond from work, home or sometimes they are unable to respond at all. Mr. Gauthier is correct with the staffing levels at Corning and Los Molinos stations. There are two people assigned to the engine 24/7. Mr. Gauthier might think this is excessive but it is a safety issue that even he, as a retired Fire Chief of Red Bluff Mr. Gauthier made reference City should appreciate. "two in — two out" that all fire- fighters must follow. This means you can only enter a burning building if you have two firefighters going in (buddy sys- tem) and two firefight- ers as a back up with a charged hose ready to back them up. Obvi- ously with only two persons staffing an engine, other tactics will have to be used until volun- teers or the next paid engine arrives. There is a mandate called Guest View Jesse Sisneros it is like having insurance. You hope you don't need it but if you do, you want them to be there. CalFire's response policy is to respond within 2 min- utes during the day, and 3 minutes at night — from the sound of the alarm to driving out with red lights and sirens. You can't have that kind of guarantee staffed during the winter months for county coverage are Red Bluff, Bowman and Paynes Creek. These are state stations using state fire engines. Accord- ing to the CalFire contract, the county only pays for the costs of the firefighters and a small por- tion of the company officer's salary unlike the two county sta- tions where the county pays for all the costs. These costs were negotiated and agreed upon with the county. The other three stations Insurance rates and response times are a couple issues to con- sider if you wish to go with a strictly volunteer fire depart- ment. Insurance companies use a rating system that determines how long it takes for the first paid fire engine to respond to your residence. It does not con- sider a volunteer response. Theoretically, homeowners could see an increase in their insurance premiums because of this. The other issue is response times. Volunteers do not staff stations unless they are requested during high fire activity. When you have a paid fire department, with an all volunteer department. Ask the residents of the recent Cody Fire if 5 or 10 minutes would have made a difference. The bottom line is that the county fire contract does cost money. It is up to county officials and the Board of Supervisors to decide what level of service is cost effective and best serves the county. There are several cities and counties that contract with CalFire, but the city of Paradise is one that just recently contract- ed with the Butte CalFire Unit for fire protection. Perhaps they can provide some insight on why they chose CalFire. As for Mr. Gauthier, I believe your facts and biases toward Tehama County Fire Department and CalFire are outdated. The relationship between Red Bluff City Fire and CalFire has come a long way with mutual aid and automatic aid agreements, a dis- patch contract, and a shared lad- der truck which is jointly owned by Tehama County and the city of Red Bluff. I'm curious if Mr. Gauthier, in light of his letter, is also in favor of Red Bluff City Fire being an all volunteer department. Jesse Sisneros, of Red Bluff, is a retired division chief for CalFire. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Let voting to felons, dogs, the dead? Commentary mond (Va.) Times-Dispatch says the Washington-based Voter Par- ticipation Center has sent voter registration applications — with names and addresses already filled in — to dead people, pets, felons, children, nonresidents, noncitizens and others who ought not be voting. Why not let dead people vote? Maybe I better explain. A recent article in the Rich- There is suspicion among some that the group, which tar- gets Democrat voting blocs, such as unmarried people, blacks, Latinos and young adults, is try- ing to pad voter rolls with ineli- gible voters who are likely to support Democrats. was the name of her long- deceased dog. The Washington Post reports one convicted felon received a filled-in application in the mail, signed it and became registered to vote. He was caught and tried, but some wonder how many other felons are voting illegally. But the center says all it is try- ing to do is to get legitimate, under-represented voters, who may be unregistered, to register and exercise their right to vote. It says it is using commercial mail- ing lists that are imperfect and produce all kinds of odd results. According to CBS News, one receiving applications for chil- dren who are younger than 18 or live out of state, as well as long- deceased family members. If people sign and return such applications, the only way a dead person or pet won't become an eligible voter is if a state's voting officials, who are doing cross- word puzzles at Dunkin' Donuts as you read this, let them slip through. In other examples, people are woman, Brenda Charleston, received a filled-in application for a Rosie Charleston; "Rosie" "Voter fraud!" and Democrats fume over Republican-backed voter ID laws that they contend are disenfranchising folks who don't have ID handy when they vote, I ask this: Why not let the dead vote? But while Republicans cry Look, the vast majority of Americans are on the public dole now, happily selling their votes to the politi- cian who promises them the biggest good- ies — and I'm not talk- ing just about those at the bottom end of the economic scale. Food stamp pro- grams, some $70 bil- lion a year, have bal- looned under President Obama. connections, global corporations that lobby for special tax breaks. So why not dead people? Don't they deserve a piece of the government pie? But the real spending is with entitlement pro- grams, such as Social Security, Medicare and now ObamaCare. People are tak- ing out four and five times more from the programs than they ever paid in. These programs need to be reformed, but any politician who tries to do so faces widespread rebellion among voters who won't hear of it. Way too many people are on the dole these days — farmers who get subsidies not to grow, "green" businesses that get grants because of their political Tom Purcell What about Ameri- can children who are too young to vote? They will be paying for our current govern- ment handouts for the rest of their lives. Don't they deserve a voice now? on runaway spending and bene- fits, why not be above-board about it? If we're going to toss our country away Tom Purcell, a humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Visit Tom on the Web at www.TomPurcell.com or e- mail him at Purcell@caglecartoons.com. Why not let the dead vote? ———