http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926 This evening the City of Tehachapi agreed to a 5 year contract with the Kern County Fire Department.&nbsp; The cost will be $0 this year, $60k next year, and about a 5% increase of cost per year for each remaining year of the contract.&nbsp; The staffing at KCFD station 12 will remain at 3 on duty personnel.&nbsp; The city's fire department will be dissolving as of 7/1/07.&nbsp; How does everyone feel about this reduction of fire protection vs. the cost savings? This evening the City of Tehachapi agreed to a 5 year contract with the Kern County Fire Department.&nbsp; The cost will be $0 this year, $60k next year, and about a 5% increase of cost per year for each remaining year of the contract.&nbsp; The staffing at KCFD station 12 will remain at 3 on duty personnel.&nbsp; The city's fire department will be dissolving as of 7/1/07.&nbsp; How does everyone feel about this reduction of fire protection vs. the cost savings? en-us <p>$&amp;!#&nbsp;!!! I forgot that was tonight. I was thinking it was next Mon for some reason. I'm kicking myself here.&nbsp;I really wanted to be there. Well as far as cost goes they are saving themselves A LOT of money. I am however extremely baffled by the fact that there will be no additional staffing placed at station 12. When the study was presented to the public the council members acted as though they would not&nbsp;settle&nbsp;for anything less than 4 firefighters being staffed at 12 like the study recommended. I got the impression that they believed anything less would be a regression in fire service&nbsp;not progress. They (city council, city manager ) were willing to spend over a million dollars a year for their&nbsp;idea of &quot;progress&quot; until the fire study proved it wasn't the best way to go. What changed? &nbsp;For those of you that were there, did they give any explanation for this?&nbsp; Will we at least have a volunteer or reserve&nbsp;dept. left? Was this even looked into? </p> <p>On a different note..... Was there any talk about what was planned for the Grants they have?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_106341 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_106341 <p>$&amp;!#&nbsp;!!! I forgot that was tonight. I was thinking it was next Mon for some reason. I'm kicking myself here.&nbsp;I really wanted to be there. Well as far as cost goes they are saving themselves A LOT of money. I am however extremely baffled by the fact that there will be no additional staffing placed at station 12. When the study was presented to the public the council members acted as though they would not&nbsp;settle&nbsp;for anything less than 4 firefighters being staffed at 12 like the study recommended. I got the impression that they believed anything less would be a regression in fire service&nbsp;not progress. They (city council, city manager ) were willing to spend over a million dollars a year for their&nbsp;idea of &quot;progress&quot; until the fire study proved it wasn't the best way to go. What changed? &nbsp;For those of you that were there, did they give any explanation for this?&nbsp; Will we at least have a volunteer or reserve&nbsp;dept. left? Was this even looked into? </p> <p>On a different note..... Was there any talk about what was planned for the Grants they have?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> Not happy at all!&nbsp; <div class="blogcommentbody"><strong><font color="#000080">The sad thing is that the City Council used tax dollars to pay for a professional fire study, then did not implement its recommendations. More money down the drain.</font></strong></div> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_106857 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_106857 Not happy at all!&nbsp; <div class="blogcommentbody"><strong><font color="#000080">The sad thing is that the City Council used tax dollars to pay for a professional fire study, then did not implement its recommendations. More money down the drain.</font></strong></div> I can't believe the outcome of this. We had a long meeting with Debbie Hand and she assured us that she truly was concerned with fire protection for the City of Tehachapi. A fourth person as the study recommends was the minimum and optimally a 2nd engine staffed with 2 f/fs was discussed. She said the council was truly concerned&nbsp;with coverage when the county engine was committed outside of the city limits. Now they are saying they don't mind waiting at least 10 minutes for the engine from Keene to get here. Please, Debbie, reconsider and remember it might be your business or home that needs the protection. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_106908 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_106908 I can't believe the outcome of this. We had a long meeting with Debbie Hand and she assured us that she truly was concerned with fire protection for the City of Tehachapi. A fourth person as the study recommends was the minimum and optimally a 2nd engine staffed with 2 f/fs was discussed. She said the council was truly concerned&nbsp;with coverage when the county engine was committed outside of the city limits. Now they are saying they don't mind waiting at least 10 minutes for the engine from Keene to get here. Please, Debbie, reconsider and remember it might be your business or home that needs the protection. Also, I thought that Stan Beckham supported the recommendations from the study. Stan, what gives? http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_107060 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_107060 Also, I thought that Stan Beckham supported the recommendations from the study. Stan, what gives? <p><font size="2">Current city leadership=Hypocrisy at its worst. We all know why they are doing this. The city&nbsp;leaders want to be able to say&nbsp;<em><u>We told you so</u></em>. The only problem with&nbsp;the immature reasoning here is that somebody will lose property and loss of life&nbsp;may occur. I ask the city leadership this question. Is it so important to you to be able say <em><u>We told you so</u></em> and then try to put the blame on the county? To all Kern County firefighters in the Tehachapi area, stand tall and know we support you and praise your unselfish service. Also know that the city leaders have abandoned you and the residents they are sworn to serve. Shame runs deep today in Tehachapi City Hall. Or do they have any shame?</font></p> <p><font size="2"></font></p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_107066 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_107066 <p><font size="2">Current city leadership=Hypocrisy at its worst. We all know why they are doing this. The city&nbsp;leaders want to be able to say&nbsp;<em><u>We told you so</u></em>. The only problem with&nbsp;the immature reasoning here is that somebody will lose property and loss of life&nbsp;may occur. I ask the city leadership this question. Is it so important to you to be able say <em><u>We told you so</u></em> and then try to put the blame on the county? To all Kern County firefighters in the Tehachapi area, stand tall and know we support you and praise your unselfish service. Also know that the city leaders have abandoned you and the residents they are sworn to serve. Shame runs deep today in Tehachapi City Hall. Or do they have any shame?</font></p> <p><font size="2"></font></p> <font size="2">Anyone notice that the entire underground pipe system for fire&nbsp;hydrants and the fire sprinkler system&nbsp;at Home Depot is being replaced? A defective fire system at a huge store full of customers, lumber and other material that would make a very large fire. How did our wonderful &quot;highly trained&quot; city fire department allow a building to open with a defective fire system? Local control at its worst. Hope we don't get a fire in the Home Depot like the one in the&nbsp;South Carolina furniture store&nbsp;yesterday. Nine brave firefighters gave their lives on that one.</font> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_107316 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_107316 <font size="2">Anyone notice that the entire underground pipe system for fire&nbsp;hydrants and the fire sprinkler system&nbsp;at Home Depot is being replaced? A defective fire system at a huge store full of customers, lumber and other material that would make a very large fire. How did our wonderful &quot;highly trained&quot; city fire department allow a building to open with a defective fire system? Local control at its worst. Hope we don't get a fire in the Home Depot like the one in the&nbsp;South Carolina furniture store&nbsp;yesterday. Nine brave firefighters gave their lives on that one.</font> &nbsp;&nbsp; It&nbsp;just goes to show that certain city officials do not care about the citizens of tehachapi, they only care about creating their own&nbsp;little empire, that's to bad.&nbsp; Maybe we can pay to get the entire city council reviewed by an outside source and see what changes should be made.&nbsp; That sounds like money well spent. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_107438 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_107438 &nbsp;&nbsp; It&nbsp;just goes to show that certain city officials do not care about the citizens of tehachapi, they only care about creating their own&nbsp;little empire, that's to bad.&nbsp; Maybe we can pay to get the entire city council reviewed by an outside source and see what changes should be made.&nbsp; That sounds like money well spent. <strong><font color="#000080" size="2">Open questions for the City Council and City Manager. Why did the city pay for a fire study and not put in affect its recommendations? Why did the city send millions on fire protection just to walk away from it now? Where is the special "Public safety" tax going now? ($2,600 per new home) Every member of this City Council stated that fire protection was its number one goal. What happened?</font></strong>  http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_107910 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_107910 <strong><font color="#000080" size="2">Open questions for the City Council and City Manager. Why did the city pay for a fire study and not put in affect its recommendations? Why did the city send millions on fire protection just to walk away from it now? Where is the special "Public safety" tax going now? ($2,600 per new home) Every member of this City Council stated that fire protection was its number one goal. What happened?</font></strong>  I think Caudle won't let the city council people get on the blogs any more. Stan used them, Deborah Hand used them and now nothing out of them. They think that if they keep quiet, then the citizens will forget about it and it will go away. Caudle has a lot of power over the council and they are afraid to talk. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108047 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108047 I think Caudle won't let the city council people get on the blogs any more. Stan used them, Deborah Hand used them and now nothing out of them. They think that if they keep quiet, then the citizens will forget about it and it will go away. Caudle has a lot of power over the council and they are afraid to talk. Stan comment was you have fire insurance.  http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108214 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108214 Stan comment was you have fire insurance.  <em><strong><font color="#003366" size="2">&nbsp;I feel there is a lot of truth in what you say 'dosenotgetit'. The City Council just rolled over and did what Caudle and McLaughlin asked them to do. They didn't get their fire department so now there cutting and running.&nbsp; In November of 2008, it will be time to change our leadership, elected leaders as well as non-elected.</font></strong></em> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108221 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108221 <em><strong><font color="#003366" size="2">&nbsp;I feel there is a lot of truth in what you say 'dosenotgetit'. The City Council just rolled over and did what Caudle and McLaughlin asked them to do. They didn't get their fire department so now there cutting and running.&nbsp; In November of 2008, it will be time to change our leadership, elected leaders as well as non-elected.</font></strong></em> <font color="#ff00ff"><strong>Many of us helped Stan get elected do to in part the fire issue. What gives now Stan you going to conform into a good boy for Caudle????? You now give him gifts from your trip, but don't represent us. What's next? You going to move into a KB home on the Nunes Ranch location? Hand, Smith, Grimes, Vernon&nbsp;all said fire protection was very important to them. I GUESS NOT!!!! I was told that Grimes, Caudle and McLaughlin didn't even ask the County about adding firefighters at the Curry St Station.</strong></font> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108234 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108234 <font color="#ff00ff"><strong>Many of us helped Stan get elected do to in part the fire issue. What gives now Stan you going to conform into a good boy for Caudle????? You now give him gifts from your trip, but don't represent us. What's next? You going to move into a KB home on the Nunes Ranch location? Hand, Smith, Grimes, Vernon&nbsp;all said fire protection was very important to them. I GUESS NOT!!!! I was told that Grimes, Caudle and McLaughlin didn't even ask the County about adding firefighters at the Curry St Station.</strong></font> <p>seniorcitizen- It's good to see you are still following this blog. I must admit we were harsh with you when we were fighting to do the right thing with the fire dept. I think we made great strides and was hoping that the city council would have done the right thing to follow up. We started this fight because of the under handedness of the way the fire department was developing. We got more into it because of the answers or lack of from the city council and city manager. The Chief of the department should never have been allowed to hire his own son. Then he should never have been allowed him to promote him and the other two inexperienced firefighters to captain. That along with the cost of duplicating services to the citizens of Tehachapi are some of the reasons we went after them. We felt if they had an independent study, it would show that we were right. WE WERE. We thought that the city would follow the recommendations, they did in part and are dissolving the department, but they are not paying for anything additional. They should at the minimum, pay for an extra firefighter at Station 12, but really if they want coverage for the city at all times, they should pay for an extra 2 man engine company at Station 12 like the chief of the Kern County fire department recommended. They could have continued the Tehachapi Volunteer Fire Department (one of the oldest fire departments in the county) as had been suggested by you and many others. </p> <p>It is a shame that they got their feelings hurt and the only way that they can handle is to wash their hands of the fire department. They think that they will be able to make the Kern County Fire Department look bad when they can't cover all their bases all of the time. There is still time to correct this as the contract can't be signed by the Board of Supervisors before July 10 as there are not meetings until then. </p> <p><font color="#ff0000">LET YOUR CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES KNOW HOW YOU FEEL</font></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108360 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108360 <p>seniorcitizen- It's good to see you are still following this blog. I must admit we were harsh with you when we were fighting to do the right thing with the fire dept. I think we made great strides and was hoping that the city council would have done the right thing to follow up. We started this fight because of the under handedness of the way the fire department was developing. We got more into it because of the answers or lack of from the city council and city manager. The Chief of the department should never have been allowed to hire his own son. Then he should never have been allowed him to promote him and the other two inexperienced firefighters to captain. That along with the cost of duplicating services to the citizens of Tehachapi are some of the reasons we went after them. We felt if they had an independent study, it would show that we were right. WE WERE. We thought that the city would follow the recommendations, they did in part and are dissolving the department, but they are not paying for anything additional. They should at the minimum, pay for an extra firefighter at Station 12, but really if they want coverage for the city at all times, they should pay for an extra 2 man engine company at Station 12 like the chief of the Kern County fire department recommended. They could have continued the Tehachapi Volunteer Fire Department (one of the oldest fire departments in the county) as had been suggested by you and many others. </p> <p>It is a shame that they got their feelings hurt and the only way that they can handle is to wash their hands of the fire department. They think that they will be able to make the Kern County Fire Department look bad when they can't cover all their bases all of the time. There is still time to correct this as the contract can't be signed by the Board of Supervisors before July 10 as there are not meetings until then. </p> <p><font color="#ff0000">LET YOUR CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES KNOW HOW YOU FEEL</font></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The Tehachapi City Council does NOT care about us. If they did they would have did what the study said to do.</p> <p>The Current Tehachapi City Council needs to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108504 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108504 <p>The Tehachapi City Council does NOT care about us. If they did they would have did what the study said to do.</p> <p>The Current Tehachapi City Council needs to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p> <strong><em>So are you guys saying the City didnt do what the study recommended? I can't believe they would be so dumb! You guys can't be telling the truth.</em></strong> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108509 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/kidswi/10926/#c_108509 <strong><em>So are you guys saying the City didnt do what the study recommended? I can't believe they would be so dumb! You guys can't be telling the truth.</em></strong>