In Kenosha News this morning... Silver Lake referendum harms fire responses Caution Silver Lake! There is a second referendum on the November ballot. It reads “Should the Silver Lake Board be prohibited from entering into any agreement with the Town of Salem, Wis., for any sharing of Fire Department or Rescue services, other than the usual MABAS agreement?” The naivete and ignorance of the authors and signers regarding fire protection is frightening. Only the current Mutual Aid Box Alarm System is allowed. MABAS works when our fire department arrives on scene at a fire, assesses the situation and determines if aid is needed, then activates the system. The state says that MABAS is not intended to relieve a community of their responsibilities of providing adequate emergency services for all local emergencies; is not an avenue to reduce staffing; and is an agreement to respond to another community’s request, if available — a request can be declined. There is another type of agreement, an automatic response agreement. Let’s look at a possible Silver Lake emergency scenario. If one of the many trains barreling through the village on a daily basis carrying oil tankers derailed, under our current ARA agreement, Salem is our automatic responder. Without it, valuable time will be lost in responding, assessing and activating the MABAS system —which can be declined. A yes vote to this referendum will eliminate our automatic response from Salem, and remember our fire department is unmanned during daytime hours and cannot guarantee a response due to a recent change by the village board. If you live within sight of the tracks in Silver Lake, like I do, you should be on red alert about this referendum. Mary Albrecht Silver Lake
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 12:43:28 +0000
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