Dear Editor:
In response to the letter on July 4th about the NHRFR I would like to voice my opinion. As a retired firefighter I would first like to say that they want to save money by closing houses. When regionalization was first put into effect they promised they would close no houses, in the ten years since they have closed a total of six houses and from the Jersey City border to the Fairview border there is no fire houses west of Kennedy Blvd. I wonder if the people of North Bergen know this. They claim they want to save money but they just promoted 19 new officers 14 captains which were assigned to companies. Three battalion chiefs and two deputy chiefs who will be assigned to fire head quarters to sit behind a desk. That means you will have two part time directors at $75,000 per year. A chief that makes $200,000 a year. Two deputy chiefs, one making about $190,000 a year, the other one making about $175,000 a year, three battalion chiefs making about $155,000 a year each, throw in the medical and, well, you do the math, does this sound like saving money to you it sure does not to me. And they have two pieces of equipment less than three years old that they have put in reserve while companies are riding alarms with equipment that is at least 20 years old. This sounds like total mismanagement to me.
Before they try to sell the public on how safe they are with their f.d., maybe they should start telling them the truth that they have no idea what they are doing and that they are putting everyone at risk especially the fire fighters. The people of North Hudson better wake up soon and get some people in there that can put the department back where it should be protecting the people we took an oath to protect not some political hacks that want to look good at the expense of the people of North Bergen. Union City, Weehawken, West New York and Guttenberg and let them know just what kind of danger they are in because their safety is being compromised. Hopefully this letter will be put in your paper. Thank you for listening.
A troubled resident