July 1, 2008

In my opinion…

An editorial by Carol Rosen

As a regular at City Council meetings, I was both stunned and proud of District 6 Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio when he asked the council to amend the loss of three fire fighters at Fire Station 6 who are being removed because of budget deficits.

Oliverio went out on a limb, suggesting that the safety of the residents of Willow Glen is more important than library hours. Most in Willow Glen have missed their branch library during its remodel and were loathe to see its hours diminished when it reopens. A number of people made their feelings known on the Willow Glen E-list.

The City Council too, was not in favor of his proposal, even though they would be the first to agree that San Jose’s citizens’ utmost concern is safety.

The fact that the council member took a path that was unfavorable and unpopular, which looked to his own district to find extra money speaks volumes about putting District 6’s needs above his own. It was a very brave step.

Too bad it didn’t work.

During the June 20 weekend there were several fires in the area and also several medical emergencies. Without the hose wagon personnel, there could have been tragedies. These were averted because the extra fire fighters at Station 6 were able to make medical emergency calls while others were out fighting fires.

Perhaps the City Council needs to take another look at the situation and consider re-adding the fire fighter or a paramedic to ensure that no tragedies take place, at least for the next three years until Fire Station 37 can be built and it can be determined that fire fighters can meet response time needs throughout Willow Glen.

At the very least, someone should monitor the calls and find out how many emergencies were unmet or met too late because fire fighters and/or paramedics had too far to travel.

It’s amazing to me that one council member broke down in tears which seeming paved the way to have a fire station in her district rebuilt instead of remodeled, when the city has such a huge deficit and had only proposed to remodel because the money from the bond measure wasn’t enough to afford the cost of building a new station.

But when the safety of residents in Willow Glen is sacrificed to budget deficits, it doesn’t seem very fair or balanced.