THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609130232
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 113 lines
Safety no priority
Contrary to what several city officials, including Fire Chief Michael L. Bolac, Mayor William E. Ward and some members of the City Council would have you believe, Chesapeake is not the safe Utopia of places to live.
Chesapeake does have highly skilled, dedicated professional firefighters, but Chief Bolac has mandated that firemen at a residential or commercial fire wait for backup of at least two additional firemen before going in to fight a fire. This mandate certainly makes sense and helps ensure safer environs for the firefighters. Most assuredly no one wants to endanger lives.
However, in Chesapeake there are only three men on a fire engine, meaning that arrival on the scene or a rapid response time mean nothing because three firemen cannot go in and fight a fire until backup comes from some other fire station. This could take anywhere from five to 15 minutes, depending on where the nearest fire engine is located. For every minute a fire burns, it doubles in intensity. Therefore, a fire could be totally out of control before the backup arrives on the scene.
In Chesapeake only two fire stations have two fire engines assigned to them and three stations have ladder trucks, which carry no water. This places most of the city at great risk.
Of the four major cities in South Hampton Roads, the only city with only three men on an engine is Chesapeake. Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach have four and five men assigned to each engine.
Obviously, public safety is not a top priority in Chesapeake. In Chesapeake, the fastest growing city in Virginia and the eighth fastest growing city in the nation, adequate manpower in the Fire Department is not a top priority.
What kind of a fire chief do we have who totally ties the hands of his own firemen and puts the fire safety of the entire city in jeopardy? Why isn't Chief Bolac at City Council consistently asking for more manpower? Instead, he outlines the need to identify commercial truss construction, something he should have done years ago, as our neighboring cities did. His second priority project, which seems designed to sidestep the real issues, is to reduce response time to a fire, which makes little or no difference at all if the first engine on the scene does not even have the ability to start fighting the fire.
You must wonder by now why I am so concerned about the firefighting capabilities and the mandates of Chief Bolac. In truth, I am the beneficiary of his mandates and the lack of necessary manpower in fighting Chesapeake fires.
On June 16, my house was hit by lightning, and I watched my house become totally engulfed with fire and the fire virtually out of control before the first drop of water went on my fire. My home was totally destroyed by fire, smoke and water damage.
I do not have a problem with the Chesapeake firemen and how they fought my fire once they were allowed to do so by the battalion chief. In fact, I have made a point of personally thanking most of the firemen for what they did at my fire. I do have a definite problem with a fire chief who apparently either does not care or - even worse - does not even realize that his policies are putting every person living and working in Chesapeake in danger.
If public safety is not a top priority in Chesapeake, what should be?
Marianne Nelowet
Formerly of Arundel Lane
Disappointed by council
On Aug. 20, the membership of the Chesapeake Council of Civic Organizations (comprised of representatives from more than 40 Chesapeake civic leagues) asked our City Council to hold a referendum on managed growth. It would have allowed voters to voice their opinions at the polls during the presidential election on whether or not undeveloped residentially zoned land, more than 5,000 acres or over 20,000 residential units, should be managed before being built on in areas where we have insufficient roads and schools to support new development.
We were saddened to see that only three council members voted to approve the referendum (John M. de Triquet, Dalton S. Edge and Alan P. Krasnoff) while five voted against the referendum (Mayor William E. Ward, Vice Mayor John W. Butt, Peter P. Duda Jr., W. Joe Newman and Elizabeth P. Thornton). Dwight M. Parker was absent.
Like last year, the referendum did not get past City Council.
Last Tuesday night (Sept. 10) our concern heightened when our membership asked that the City Council delay a meals and lodging tax increase that will affect every family in Chesapeake. This time only two council members stood with our membership on this issue (de Triquet and Krasnoff) while seven council members voted for the tax increase (Ward, Butt, Duda, Edge, Newman, Parker and Thornton).
Although the amount is only a .5 percent increase over last year's meal tax and a 1 percent increase on lodging tax and will be used to help fund a new 51,000-square-foot convention center in Greenbrier, we wanted a continuance to allow more time for citizens to comment on this issue. Most citizens found out about the proposed tax increase for the first time in an article in the business section of the Sept. 8 Virginian-Pilot and in The Clipper's announcement of the council agenda. Many of us missed the 1 1/2-by-3-inch small ad placed in the Sept. 1 Clipper giving us public notification of the event.
Our argument was that if members of the council have been working on a convention center for years and for months with Armada Hoffler on detailed plans, why couldn't the citizens have one month to learn more and make comments on this item? You would think that the City Council would have wanted planning commissioners' comments on detailed site plans before the city is committed to a $930,000-a-year lease agreement with Armada Hoffler!
We were very discouraged by the way this was handled. Mayor Ward provided special invitations for proponents of this issue to speak, including Greenbrier hotel establishments and other businesses, but excluded restaurant organizations and citizen groups!
We appreciated council members John de Triquet's and Alan Krasnoff's stand on this issue. They both made some very valid points on the priority and necessity of a convention center while more important services are still lacking in our city.
You can help change things in our city if you get involved. What better place is there than with your local civic league. If you don't have a civic league, we will help you start one. Just contact our internet home page at http://www.infi.net/-ccco or give us a call at 547-8885.
Gene Waters
President
Chesapeake Council of Civic Organizations by CNB