Fire Station 54 Shutdown! Harmony Burns!
Geo
Well unless you and your neighbors get off your lazy fat asses and do
something about it, this portent of the future may come true for you
and your families. I am sorry if I am offending you, but we are not
children. As adults a little indelicacy can help drive home an
important point. As children we would do nothing and just hope for the
best.
We have a little more time (very little) to persuade the Osceola
County Commission to leave our new fire station intact.
Remind Fred Hawkins of what he said when our new fire station was
opened just last year after more than 5 years of delays (see
http://tinyurl.com/payfys ):
"Osceola County Fire Station 54 is the 17th fire
station to be built in Osceola County. The new station
was completed under budget and ahead of schedule," said
Commissioner Hawkins. "My fellow County Commissioners
and I recognize the importance of the safety of our
citizens and visitors, and we’re committed that their
safety will remain our top priority."
Imagine just one house in Harmony's Cypress neighborhood catching
fire. Then, because it takes Osceola firemen 20 minutes rather than 2
minutes to get here (as it otherwise would if the Harmony fire station
54 across the street stays open), your house and every other house on
your block burns to the ground with all of the death and misery that
that would entail.
How many Harmony children must you imagine burning alive before you
actually do something? Whatever that number is please shudder to
imagine it now and then act immediately.
Wake up Harmony residents and for once band together for the good of
everyone in Harmony.
After waiting so many years for it to open, you would think that the
possibility of Harmony losing its only fire station would be something
rather important to our CDD supervisors and the developer of Harmony.
Yet only one CDD supervisor was in attendance at last night's meeting
at this critical time. Nancy Snyder was the only supervisor there and
no representative of the developer bothered to show up and speak on
behalf of Harmony.
Bob Evans was not there (surprise)
Kerul Kassel was not there.
Mark LeMenager was not there.
Steve Berube was not there.
While it is my understanding that Steve Berube has a legitimate excuse
(he was out-of-town yet was instrumental in having last night's
meeting posted in this forum), the others should be ashamed of
themselves. They claim to represent Harmony residents yet at this
critical moment they were nowhere to be found when it really mattered.
I must say that I was disappointed to see only a handful of Harmony
residents in attendance at this meeting. I was also disappointed to
see none of our new CDD candidates at this important meeting either.
Ray Walls was not there.
Rich Martz was not there.
That is why it is so important that YOU help yourself and your family.
Don't wait for others to help you.
Nancy Snyder should be commended for speaking before the Osceola
Commission last night. I think that she made the single most important
and rational point. It should help to persuade our commissioners to
keep the Harmony fire station open.
Nancy pointed out that Harmony has zero-lot-line homes, unlike
anywhere else on the east side of Osceola county. This means that
since our houses are so close together, when one catches fire many
others will burn also, unless the fire department arrives quickly
enough.
This is a critical point that must be stressed over and over again to
our commissioners. Harmony MUST have a fire station because of its
unique dense layout of homes on this side of the county. While other
neighborhoods near Harmony may withstand another 10 minutes of burn
time, Harmony will not. While elsewhere the loss of a single home to
fire would be tragic enough, in Harmony a similar fire would be
catastrophic.
Please write to all of your commissioners and stress this point - or
live with the regret if you don't.
Note: Replace "_AT_SIGN_" with "@" in each email address below.
Osceola County Commissioners
Fred Hawkins, Jr.
Chairman, Commissioner District 5
fhaw_AT_SIGN_osceola.org
Michael E. Harford
Commissioner District 1
michael.harford_AT_SIGN_osceola.org
John "Q" Quiñones
Commissioner District 2
johnq_AT_SIGN_osceola.org
Brandon Arrington
Vice Chairman, Commissioner District 3
barr_AT_SIGN_osceola.org
Ken Smith
Commissioner District 4
ken.smith_AT_SIGN_osceola.org
wallsr
Preposterous scenarios aside, I take exception to your insinuation that
because someone was not at last night's Board of County Commissioners
meeting they don't care or aren't doing anything about this situation.
I can't speak for others, but you can rest assured that Chairman Hawkins
knows who I am and where I stand on many issues related to Harmony and
Osceola County, as he and I communicate frequently. The message that can be
conveyed through a simple email or phone call days prior to a board meeting
is ten times more effective than me getting up and cramming talking points
into two minutes at a board meeting. Having attended and worked behind the
scenes at literally hundreds of commission meetings, I can tell you that
it's quite infrequent that commissioners go into a meeting undecided.
I happen to agree that the proposed service reductions are ridiculous.
Specifically the fact that almost all of the reductions are concentrated in
our area. Do we have too many fire stations serving too few people? Maybe.
Does it makes sense to close down a brand new station in a center of
significant residential, commercial, and industrial development? Absolutely
not. I have and will continue to convey that fact to the commissioners.
Finally, I'll note that I think it's a stretch to single out current CDD
members as county policy advocates for the neighborhood. CDD Supervisors
were not elected to influence county policy. Their role is limited to
overseeing neighborhood infrastructure. They are free to advocate for the
neighborhood in a personal capacity, but in a CDD capacity, I don't believe
that I want them deciding what it is I should want from a county policy
perspective and then pushing for it. That's not a facet of their job, nor
was it a skill that was evaluated when I made my vote for the seats they
hold.
Take Care,
Ray Walls
Geo
In the future, if you write to our county commissioners about an
important issue like this, please let us all know (especially when you
become a CDD supervisor). This way others may be inspired to do the
same.
I can't disagree more when you suggest that CDD supervising is one
thing and a possible fire station closing is something else. Actions
speak Ray. Inaction at a time like this implies inaction in general.
For example, while Steve Berube could not be at last night's meeting,
he did everything he could to inform us and get us to go (including
me). This is action. This is leadership.
What other CDD supervisors did (besides Nancy) was apparently nothing
or at least nothing that any of us are aware of. I believe that
anything a public official does for the community should be the talk
of the town. In politics, no talk means no action (of course the
opposite - talk means action - is typically not the case).
So far CDD supervisors are the only elected leaders that we have in
Harmony Ray. This means that CDD supervisors have more influence than
most of us. Their influence is not limited to just CDD matters. This
is why it is important that we elect open and responsive people like
yourself to the CDD board who will keep us well informed about
whatever they are doing for the community, whether specifically for
the CDD or not.
Thanks for clearing this up Ray. And thank you for communicating your
concerns about the fire station to the commission. Hopefully many
others will follow your example.
GhostWriter
Willow that spoke. Also Patrice DeNike and Carl Fsadni from our HROA
spoke in opposition of the closing. Here is the URL to view the
recorded proceedings and audience comments:
http://osceola.granicus.com/ASX.php?view_id=8&clip_id=984&r=c75fdba97931c46bb8b66a6da96ebe0d&xp=y&intro=1&sn=osceola.granicus.com&SESS1=74b0df5abec0d31362959819185c5253&sn=osceola.granicus.com
James Warren
Just because you and the little forum here did not hear about others supporting the fire station does not mean it did not happen.
Remember your past actions has alienated you from most of the community. Why would they communicate their actions through you. You are not the spokesperson by far for the community.
Jim
Geo
Thanks Carl!
On Jun 29, 9:16 pm, GhostWriter <GhostWriterHarm...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Don't forget Geo that there was a gentleman that lives on Primrose
> Willow that spoke. Also Patrice DeNike and Carl Fsadni from our HROA
> spoke in opposition of the closing. Here is the URL to view the
> recorded proceedings and audience comments:
>