[RP TownTalk] Tonight's News.

[Roland Walker]

[ sarah said]
> volunteers.  A few years ago, this was a definite priority for the
> county; I'm not sure what has happened in the interim.

The county has a long-standing plan to phase out the Riverdale Fire
Department as part of a consolidation that is laid out in the Capital
Improvement Program (CIP).  If you look at a chapter of the Prince
George's County Master Plan here

   http://www.mncppc.org/cpd/PDFs/GenPlan/IVGenPlan.pdf

at page 16 (which is page 70 of the master document) there is a table
showing that the Riverdale Fire Department will be phased out in 2009.

If you look at the Capital Improvement Plan here

   http://www.goprincegeorgescounty.com/Government/AgencyIndex/OMB/Approved_Budget_FY2007/CIPpdfs/Project%20Summary/FireDepartment.pdf

on page 22, which is page 339 of the master document, you can read
that the expansion of the Riverdale Heights fire station on Roanoke is
slated to be completed in December of 2007, and that it is currently
72% completed.  The purpose of this project (cost: $350,000) is to
provide the additional bays that will be required when the Riverdale
Fire Department is merged into that location.

There will be more information in the Public Safety Master Plan,
unfortunately not available in electronic form, but obtainable in
paper form here

   http://www.mncppc.org/html/pubs.htm

So my impression is that the consolidation of the Riverdale Park fire
station is still very much a priority of the county, and that the
project is moving along.

R

On 9/26/07, Sarah Wayland <sarah.wayland at gmail.com> wrote:
> For years I've kept my mouth shut about the fire department, but I can
> no longer continue to do so in good faith.
>
> Incidents like this make me think we need to push the county to move
> quickly towards making our firefighters professionals, rather than
> volunteers. A few years ago, this was a definite priority for the
> county; I'm not sure what has happened in the interim.
>
> There have been countless incidents (though none this serious) where
> I've heard of our firefighters behaving in an unprofessional manner.*
> As a resident of the town, I want to be able to count on firefighters
> (who also provide ambulance service) to behave in a professional way.
> Right now, I do not feel that I can count on this.
>
> How can we push our county to insure that we are served by
> firefighters and EMTs who take their duties seriously? Our
> firefighters in the Riverdale Volunteer Fire Department are not the
> same caliber of people we honored after 9/11, and for us to continue
> to pretend they are only discredits the honorable men and women who
> *do* take their job seriously.
>
> Just my opinion.
>
> -Sarah Wayland
>
> * Recently a friend needed ambulance service to take him to the
> hospital (he is terminally ill.) The EMTs were making *jokes* about
> his physical condition (which was quite dire) right in front of him,
> as if he couldn't hear them, or perhaps didn't have feelings. I was
> furious when I heard about this. Now, after this story of the teenage
> boy, I can no longer keep quiet.
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