With the New Year here ,will the voters be happy with the way the CRPUD handles the recent upset in the November election ? The voters voted in Nancy Ward by nearly a 2-1 margin and after the fact it became public notice that Ms. Ward was not eligible to run for her district because of a decision made by the CRPUD and the County Commissioners way back in 2000 involving an annexation. The decision was made and it excluded a portion of an area which was floating homes. This caused these people not to be able to vote in CRPUD elections… although these very same people get their power and pay their bills to the CRPUD. Taxation with no representation.

Instead of correcting the problem as soon as it was discovered the CRPUD did not follow through correcting the problem which caused the recent vote to be null and void. Now the PUD board must appoint a person to fill the seat which will not be the person picked by the voters. It will be an interesting procedure to see how this plays out.

Then we have the CRFR….. Will the new chief correct the mismanagement of the previous chief? Will he correct the way the CRFR responds to calls? Will the new chief man the Deer Island station like it was funded by the voters to be? Or will the residents of Deer Island continue to pay over $6.00 per thousand for fire insurance and tax levy costs together while the rest of the CRFR residents pay $1.98 for better protection and faster respond time for emergencies. Will the new chief focus on more medical runs while leaving the entire town of St. Helens and other areas unprotected period because all the firemen are on medical runs to Portland. Should we wait and see how he performs his duties as he is a seasoned chief and manager…. I would venture to say no… the CRFR has had 17 years to correct this grievous deliberate act and I believe it is past time for the CRFR to take action and correct this problem for the protection and financial well-being for the people who live in the Deer Island area.

Maybe the CRFR should return to their original duties and what a fire departments original job description was and that is to fight fires first and being on medical calls second. If there are so many medical calls to respond to and the fire department is then under manned in fire protection
I suggest that they contract out medical runs to an ambulance service, and quit soliciting fire med. Insurance protection because they can not full fill that contract with the people and they are not full filling their obligation to the people in the CRFR districts for fire protection.

I will be attending the CRFR public meetings to continue to put pressure on the CRFR to fully man the Deer Island station. If the CRFR does not open up this station as promised by chief Tappan … he assured me that by June of 2016 the station would be manned and our fire rating would drop back to a decent rate…. but deep down I knew that he was full of bull and it was not going to happen. I have left the CRFR alone for an additional 7 months and they have done nothing. So that leaves me no alternative but to dog them until they do what is right.