Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 74. Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:31 PM for 15h 15m 27s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 76% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1789, James Madison introduces twelve proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in Congress.
Sometimes a community, so entranced and distracted by every tree, cannot see the forest. What matters most is overlooked for the sake of smaller concerns. So it has been with Whitewater’s fire & rescue department.
For over a century, Whitewater had a volunteer fire department. Over time, and undeniably by the Aughts of this century, it was clear that a volunteer model no longer met Whitewater’s needs. In the 2010s, Whitewater commissioned an independent study to review the department and make recommendations. It began a long (almost dilatory) but necessary process.
Almost a year ago, Whitewater approved a referendum to fund a municipal fire department. This libertarian blogger supported that referendum.
It shouldn’t be hard to see why. A community must assure its members’ safety. If that can be done through volunteer efforts, then so much the better. When it cannot be assured through volunteer efforts, the government provision of these services (fire, emergency response, policing, defense) must still be provided, through government. This is the foundational expectation for state power: that people are kept safe with minimal intrusion into their lives. This was an increase in state power, but a specified, limited, and responsible exercise. (In no case is that power independent of law — police and fire departments are not separate nations within their communities, free to act as they wish. They are to be limited and closely regulated only in pursuit of specified objectives.)
It was an expensive shift, but an expense that was justified to assure community well-being. No other public project of the last thirty years, not a Bridge to Nowhere, not a roundabout, not a failed tax incremental district, not hundreds of thousands wasted to dicey capital catalyst projects while Whitewater remained a low-income community, not an East Gate renovation project, and not an Innovation Center that survives only through a publicly-funded tenant, has been as important as having a normal and successful fire department.
No one will come to a town that cannot meet residents’ basic needs for safe streets, emergency responses, clean air & water, and good schools. In Whitewater, these are all public services (as we’ve no large private district or university in town).
There should have been a parade — truly — when the fire & rescue department became a city agency. There was a proper pinning ceremony, but there might have been more. Our move to this model has been to the community’s gain, as a necessary step toward modern standards of public safety.
And so, and so — no step local government has taken in the last generation has been as important for the city’s well-being. A municipal fire & rescue department keeps us safer and makes us more inviting to new residents and businesses.
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano spectacularly erupts after three-month slumber:
Good post. Interesting take.
Limited government, but government when you have to have it. An in-house department makes the city more professional, that’s for sure. Great contrast with lots of B.S. projects over the years. You could win a debate about any of those mistakes. (Others that were B.S. include a million for lakes, bus to the tech park, and INSANE digester idea. Saw that the wastewater guy’s heading out!)
Welcome to normal?
Get in a few new stores, add housing, and maybe we will be ok. Maybe.
Thanks much for your comments.
The digester proposal was a bad idea that staggered through three studies, the third of which did it in. (One would count 4 studies if including a Strand study of a few years earlier.)
Not one of those studies offered a compelling case: one was never completed, two were critical, and the only ‘favorable’ study was unpersuasive (and so the need for one last study that finally put the project out of its misery).
There was a desperation to justify that ludicrous idea for this town, and a unmerited arrogance on the part of its few proponents. Of all the bad ideas this small town has faced, the hubris of those few proponents was notable.
Whitewater is cleaner and healthier without their foul and fumbling scheme.
My best to you —
Adams