UPDATE ON BUDGET CUTS

Yesterday I wrote a piece about budget cuts in our city here. I wanted to share a story about how these budget cuts can affect us, as they are already affecting the nation.

Yesterday in San Francisco, California a man waded out into San Francisco bay. The man was attempting to commit suicide by drowning himself in the bay. The police and fire departments were notified and responded in a timely manner. They responded so quickly that both police and fire were there to watch the man keep wading out further and further. It is stated that the man would even turn back and look at the shoreline to see if anyone was going to come save him. Guess what no one did.

That's right no one did. Fireman, policeman, and paramedics stood by, from the shore, and watched this man walk out further and further. After sometime the man went to just floating face down. He had drowned.

One would think that after watching this man float face down for sometime the police or fireman or paramedics would go in after him and bring him to shore. Wrong again. It was a bystander that finally went into the bay, swam out and recovered the body and swam back to shore with the now dead body.

Why did the police and fireman and paramedics do nothing you ask?

They did nothing because of budget cuts. That is right budget cuts.

Due to budget cuts in San Francisco neither police or fireman or the paramedics had the training to do so. They were not trained in water rescue or water emergencies at all. The city felt it could save some money by not giving these men and women the training they needed to save this man's life.

A city on a bay and their first responders do not have the water training they need. That is unacceptable. That is like saying "I know we have an airport here but we do not need to be trained in airport emergencies."

That type of thinking and budget cutting might save money but it cost lives. The cost to train those responders in water emergencies was reported to a total of $40,000.

So what that city and others that make the same cuts (ours is looking into cuts like that) are saying is "Hey it is ok to save a few thousand dollars at the expense of a few lives." I don't think that would fly if the public actually knew what happens when they cut these things.

Another example is a small town in central Texas was not creating enough revenue from their fire department, so they made budget cuts. They closed a few stations laid off a few fireman and started selling policies. These policies were not like insurance but more like permission slips to put out fires that would occur on property of residents that purchased these policies.

Guess what happened next? That is right a fire broke out, 9-1-1 was called and the fire department responded. Once they arrived on scene it was found out that the home owner (of the burning structure) did not have one of these policies. So the fire department stood by and watched this tax paying citizens home burn to the ground. Oh but the neighbor did have one of those permission slips so the fire department made sure to spray water on his property so that it would not burn as well.

These budget cuts do not only affect the departments that are being cut, but the general public is greatly affected. If I or someone in my family has an emergency and must call upon our first responders, whether it be police fire or a paramedic, I hope they are giving the training to handle the emergency.

The people in offices making the plans just see pieces of paper and numbers. That piece of paper cant tell them how many lives may be lost if such cuts are made.

I am not saying that cuts cant be made but I am saying there are other places to look to make those cuts. There are certain things that are needed and expected by tax paying citizens and to take those away without informing them of the consequences is wrong.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong. Someone tell me

Agree or disagree tell us what you think so that we may know how the PEOPLE feel. L2