Great article in the Mountain Signal with regards to the demise of the Tehachapi Fire Department. It's too bad that the City Council can't see past the money blinders they have on their eyes. They have almost cut the fire protection in our city in half. They were willing to spend 1.3 million dollars to have their own fire department but chose not to spend 1/2 of that amount to have the same protection in the City. Yesterday, some poor person a 1/2 block from the fire station had to wait for an ambulance and fire department to respond from Mojave. At least 25 minutes were spent waiting. I don't know about you, but to me that is unacceptable. The city thinks it is now the County's responsibility, but it's the city that doesn't want to spend any money now on fire protection. The study that they paid for would have added another fireman that would have helped and the county fire chief suggested that the city pay for two additional men that would have been guaranteed to stay in the city limits.

It must be sad for Chief Anthony to see what happened to the fire department that he was so proud to be in charge of.

Another sad thing to see was the questions that the City Council persons asked Monday night at the Council  meeting. Council person Hand asked if they gave away the City Fire Equipment. (They traded it to the County in exchange for payment for the fire protection). They all seem oblivious to what happened to the Fire Protection in the city. Even when Mrs. Schmidt and Mr. Gehricke stood up and asked questions as to why and what happened with the Fire Department, All the Mayor could do is thank and praise Mr. Gehricke for his service.