Over
the past several months, I have again taken on the task of keeping the town of
Landaff’s website updated. The
task has included posting minutes of both the selectmen’s meetings and the fire
services committee meetings. It
has been an eye opening experience, to say the least.
According
to the minutes, I can see that Michael Ransmeier takes every opportunity to lay
the smack down when it comes to the fire department. He does this all while touting his open communication with
the department. When the
department used a Lisbon fire hydrant to train two firemen on the Fourth of
July on how to dress a hydrant, Mike said that actions like that make it hard
to support the fire department.
Really,
Mike? It is hard to support the
department because they did that? Let me tell you about one firefighter in
town. This guy has been on the
department for 30 years. He has
spent hundreds of hours training and in classes to continue being a
firefighter. He has spent hours
helping people in Landaff and surrounding towns at accident scenes, chimney
fires, brush fires, flooding, carbon monoxide incidents, wires down, clearing
storm damage, and even the occasional structure fire. He has left family events
and work for fire calls. He has
gotten up in the middle of the night and stayed up all night. Did I mention
that they get no payment whatsoever?
This
firefighter also works on Old Home Day every year. The preparation for this event is at least 100 hours of
time. He does the advertising,
distributing of posters, contacting people to get all the details correct,
arranging to pick up items, and after it is all over he makes several trips to
the dump to get rid of many of the things that people gave the fire department
because they didn’t want to pay to have items brought to the dump. This firefighter also hears complaints
that the department bought burgers and chips to have a cookout after Old Home
Day to thank everyone who helped make the day a success.
This
firefighter gets told that the fire department isn’t trustworthy, that they are
stupid (for real), and that they are hated. Some of the same people ask why they can’t get more people
to be firemen. You might say we
aren’t talking about the same firefighter as you are. It does not matter.
Any volunteer in the department is doing training and going to meetings
and going to incidents. It should not be hard to see that they are doing
something that you don’t want to do.
It should not be hard to respect them. It should not be hard to support
them.
