Mariposa's original daily updated online newspaper
Mariposa's original daily updated online newspaper
Letter to the Editor
The County CSA
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Responding to "Curious" of June 2, concerning the Lushmeadows Volunteer Fire Dept. "spending
thousands of dollars for printing and mailing" of the CSA informational material.
The facts are-money was not spent to prepare the mailing before the Board of Supervisors
approving the ballot measure. We waiting until AFTER the meeting and vote to approve and until we had been assured by the CAO
that the money for the balloting would be forthcoming.
The mailing consisited of a cover letter written by Lushmeadows Volunteer Fire Dept; a "20 questions" letter and a
Brochure, made up by the Mariposa County Fire Chiefs Association.
This packet was sent out by the LVFD to the residents of our response area only. The other county residents will receive
the "20 questions" letter and the brochure, but not our cover letter. This letter contains information I felt it is
important for our residents to know so, with the agreement of our other dedicated firefighters, we decided to write, and
send it along with the MCFD information in one packet.
The cost of the paper and printing of the "20 questions" and the cover letter were donated.
The mailing labels were also donated. The folding, stuffing, etc. was done by Lushmeadows volunteers-all donated. The
color brochure was provided by the Mariposa Fire Chief's Association. This brochure WAS made up prior to the vote since
there would have been no time to have it done afterwards. NO COUNTY FUNDS were used in any of these items. The only cost to
the Lushmeadows Volunteer Fire Dept. was for the postage to send this letter only to residents in our response area, the
brochure and 20 questons letter are going out to all other residents today, paid for by funds from the Chief's Association.
We, the members of Lushmeadows Volunteer Fire Dept. felt the information covered in our
letter was important to our area residents.
This letter would have been posted yesterday, but I got called out on the fire at Judge
Parrishs' home in the late afternoon and didn't get home until after midnight. It might be of interest to note that the
road to the home is an extremely narrow, one way road consisting of many sharp curves and switchbacks. One water tender had
the transmisson overheat and the engine shut down, the water tender behind it lost air pressure in the air brake system thus
blocking the road to the house for over an hour. No one could enter or leave until the engine cooled down enough to start
again and the air brake problem on the second water tender was resolved. During this time, all units on scene ran out of
water and the firefighters had to put down their hoses and wait. For safety reasons we had to keep 2 heliocopters, 2 air
tankers and 1 air attack plane circling the incident, which added a huge amount to the cost of fighting this fire. Because
we ran out of water the fire increased in intensity and became more dangerous both to our firefighters and the community.
One reason the fire didn't spread significantly into the wildland was the excellent clearence of vegitation by the home
owner.
We, the members of LVFD want the citizens to have a clear knowledge of what the CSA is. We
want everyone to understand just what the issues are and to be aware of what their vote means. That is the reason for the
informational packet. Personally, I can't think of a bigger bargain! For $80 per year you get 12 brand new fire engines,4
water tenders, save money on your insurance, and guarantee we have reliable equipment to answer your fire calls, medical aid
calls, accident calls and citizen assist calls. Where else can you get so much for so little?
Thank you,
Tom Hull
Station Captain
Lushmeadows Volunteer Fire Department
Engine Co. 29
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