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No cheap shots, please
Some of you demanded that the mayor terminate the fire chief and combine fire and police departments. That, as of yesterday, is in process. There’s no need to take cheap shots at Jim Hodges, now. (Please remember to follow this Web site’s “commenting policy,” which reads, in part: “This is not a place to be conversational or a place where personal attacks are allowed. We hold the right to remove any comments that take on a personal nature or that we deem to be bigoted, hateful, or racially offensive. “)
Combining fire/paramedics and police probably should have happened three years ago, last year at the latest. Easy to say, in retrospect, but it should have been obvious that a city this size could not (especially in tough times) support two units, both growing, both with huge overhead/administrative costs.
Hodges, in the past year, has faced extraordinary criticism. Some of it was certainly justified, based on his expansion of the department — just as the economy was going the other way. But keep in mind that City Council approved the new fire station. They could have said, “Nope, too much. Come back with something half that expensive, for both fire and police.” Instead, they gave it the old Ocean Shores City Council green light: “Sounds good to me, let REET pay for it, knock yourself out and have a nice day. Next!”
Back to Hodges: He helped bring down insurance costs of home owners, and ran a tight ship. He was respected (and probably a little feared) by the men and women of the fire department. In my year-plus as editor of the local paper, I’ve heard dozens of complaints about city employees in various departments, but never about the paramedics. Even those who have hammered on billing and financial issues have gone out of their way to praise the level of service by our emergency responders.
That came, in no small part, from Chief Hodges’ demand of professionalism and high levels of customer service.
From the “profile” on osgov.com:
James E. Hodges became Chief of the Ocean Shores Fire and Emergency Care Department in January 2005. Prior to that he served as Assistant Chief for five years. He has been serving the fire service community since 1984 when he started working as a building inspector and deputy fire marshal for Washington’s San Juan County. He became Fire Marshal for the Town of Friday Harbor WA in 1986. He is a Certified Building Inspector with extensive background in fire prevention and fire investigation
(Note, for those who care: I am no longer a volunteer at the fire department, due to my schedule prohibiting me from advanced training, three times a week in Aberdeen. Why that can’t be offered in Ocean Shores is another story . . .)
prepare prepare prepare. everything is not always the same. and weather changes. oh, i’m not sorry, complain complain complain. yes,by the way, i love kool-aid. it’s what makes the world go round. wait’ll you here my new idea.
Fritz did you drink the kool-aid? I’m trying to think of the last freeze when the fire truck was unable to get out of the old fire station! I wonder what the refrigerator in the chief’s office was for? Not very handy for emergencies.
I believe what the Mayor is moving towards is an Administrative consolidation. There will still be the fire dept and police dept with their own work force and responsibilities.
Any decision the mayor will have to make will not be an easy one. People are going to loose their jobs, nobody WANTS that to happen. The economy doesn’t care how big or small our town is. Unfortunatly there was a whole lot of spending in a short amount of time.
Good luck Hodges, and God bless you in your future endevours.
dear dear frances, heated floors have nothing to do with toes nor comfort. just being able to get the trucks out in freezing conditions. and i’ll betcha one, or maybe two, of those fridges are for hazardous materials and not for the benefit of use by the firemen for food stuffs. something they may use to save your life might just be stored in one of those fridges.
How many fires do we have a day? How many robberies do we have a day? Does a fire station need 3 brand new refrigerators…the police dept can share them now. Does a fire station need heated floors? Now the police can enjoy warm toes too. Does a fire station need $100,000 for furniture? Now at least the police can enjoy that furniture too. In fact I think we could move the library and the interpretive center in that fire station and still have room.
Please explain to us what the size of the town has to do with it!
I wouldn’t be so quick to judge Jim Hodges and his staff. The Ocean Shore’s fire department and Jim Hodges are all about service to the community, in many cases actually driving down the costs of insurance for residents of Ocean Shores. In hard economic times it is easy to find a scapegoat, but at what cost? This is a member of the community whom will likely lose everything he has worked so hard for (perhaps his retirement) in the name of service. Do not be naive and think that any one man can go out and just build a fire station, these were decisions made and agreed upon by others. Please be kind with your comments and think about this person’s family and friends.
That was an interesting read but we aren’t talking about a big city. Ocean Shores is a small town.
FYI-CHECK OUT http://www.iaff.org Go to Fire and Police consolidation under the technical assitant section. We don’t want to be too hasty opening the dam!