Finally the Pensacola daily newspaper reports on fire protection in Escambia County. Unfortunately, they only focus on the possibility of higher fees and almost completely ignore all the other recommendations made by the committee that has studied fire safety in the county for six months.
The only reference to the rest of the report:
In addition to increasing the funding, the county wants to clarify the organizational structure of the fire-rescue system.
This is truly incredible. We have a volunteer firefighting force of which just a little over 50% are properly certified. We have an audit of VFD finances being conducted. We have the state fire marshal investigating the fire stations. And we have a citizen’s committee that has made some substantial recommendations on how to restructure the entire system.
But the daily paper only gives it one sentence. How can the general public make an informed decision on whether a higher fire protection fees are warranted without all the information on what’s going on?
Maybe we really should use “Newsy Neighbors” to report the news because the rest of the editors are ignoring it. I like the news staff, the editors and Kevin Doyle, but I’m truly baffled by their decision regarding this important story.
Here is our original article on the issue: Burning Down The House
Here are the recommendations from the advisory committee – see how much the PNJ didn’t report:
Draft: Fire Safety Committee makes recommendations
Here is IN editor Duwayne Escobedo’s account of the same meeting: County ready to improve fire safety
