If you’re in the fire district, you’ll get to vote.

In Meadview, that doesn’t make for many voters since MOST properties are NOT in the district.

On 5/5 I hoped to be able to ask the candidates a few questions and first I attended the COM meeting.  Not too surprising, questions were NOT allowed.  According to Suzann Newell that was due to time constraints, but then one speaker cancelled and there still was NO time to ask a single question.

Somebody said he was told that they couldn’t take questions because it was “political.”  HUH?

I just HAVE to mention supervisor Bishop’s appearance at the COM meeting.   She told a very long story about a DOG she caught in Meadview and placed in a rescue.   The IQ of the Meadview COM attendees must be significantly below room temperature because they LOVED it!

So I drove all the way to Dolan for their “meet the candidates” because I REALLY wanted to ask my questions.   It was not meant to be.   While they had a quite “professional” setup for the Q & A with fire chief DeMaio a few weeks ago, the candidates were just sitting at tables with their brochures and this was not what I had expected.

The one question I REALLY wanted to ask was for Meadview candidate Steve Berg:

Why was the Meadview fire district forced into consolidation with Dolan Springs after you became the Meadview fire chief?

I had asked Steve Berg after one of the fire board meetings, but he refused to answer and instead told me that he did NOT want me to join the fire district.  I can only wonder what he would have said in a real “debate” type Q & A.

So, considering that Steve Berg already successfully bankrupted the Meadview fire district and he is NOT willing to discuss it, he is one guy NOT to vote for.

I like Donna Wickerd and Debbie Cass (Baldwin).

You can thank Donna for informing chief DeMaio about the Red Cross smoke detector program.

Actually, you ought to thank me for inquiring about a smoke detector program with chief DeMaio after the Q & A in Dolan since I have NEVER heard anyone mention smoke detectors in the 16 years I’ve lived here.  Donna had all the answers and I’ll try to get the phone number to call so that the Red Cross volunteers can install them.

Debbie has been a Dolan resident since 1979, became a first responder, was a fire department volunteer, dispatched and drove a truck when necessary — she knows what’s going on!  She’s been working for the library for 21 years in the technical service department and she would definitely be a great asset to the fire board.

And then there’s my friend and gardening club member John Ford.  He doesn’t campaign, he’s honest and won’t take any BS.

While I don’t know much about Charlotte Kiefer, she was the only person who was able to get me answers to the most important questions with respect to staffing in Meadview:

How many Meadview properties are in the district?

How many Meadview properties are NOT in the district?

Charlotte wrote a few days later:

Attached are excel spreadsheets listing total properties in the GMFD and Lake Mead City and those NOT in the GMFD as of 2012. That number will have changed minimally. The values will have changed, probably downwards since 2012. The tax value of properties NOT in the GMFD at that time was $265,400…and change. The tax value of properties NOT in GMFD in Lake Mead City was around $80,000.

Keep in mind that tax value does NOT equal collected taxes and property values have gone down considerable, over 10% just in the last year.  Still, if ALL properties were in the district, there should be enough funds to pay for TWO fire fighters / EMTs in Meadview at all times.

So hopefully even the Meadview leadership will finally realize that we can’t have services that we are NOT paying for.  The dimwits who run Meadview wanted to CONSOLIDATE with the Northern Arizona district that can’t even keep its existing fire stations open! 

If we only had some people with functioning brains in charge of Meadview we might get a vote to include ALL properties.

Don’t hold your breath though — the Meadview Morons are not about to go away …