Pattye Benson

Community Matters

Supervisor Lamina's Explanation of the Fire Company Contribution

Supervisor Bob Lamina has a Letter to the Editor in this week’s Main Line Suburban Life. The letter is signed by him and Supervisor Paul Olson, but without the signature of Supervisor Kampf. It certainly was clear to me from the December 21 Supervisor Meeting that Supervisor Kampf was the third member of the supervisor’s Fire Company Holiday Drive so it is curious to me why his name was not included on the Letter to the Editor. If this truly was an orchestrated honest attempt to collect the needed funds for the fire departments (rather than something else) I would simply ask why not involve the fire companies in the process? The fire departments were not informed of this Holiday Drive by Supervisors Lamina, Olson and Kampf nor are they aware of any process in place for the actual collection and only found out about the ‘contribution check’ at the Board of Supervisors Meeting.

My understanding is that that there is confusion surrounding how the money will be collected . . . actually heard that it is being suggested that the fire companies themselves are to track down the funds. Please tell me that isn’t true! I want to believe that information cannot be accurate . . . surely the principals who organized the drive (Supervisors Kampf, Lamina and Olson) have a system in place for the appropriate collection of the funds. (which does not include the volunteer firefighters doing the collection)

Just for the record, I reached out to Supervisors Lamina, Olson and Kampf for further explanation of the Holiday Drive process and to date, my emails have gone unanswered. I would propose that there is a responsibility of our elected officials to respond to resident’s inquiries.

I will leave it to the readers for further comment, here’s Supervisor Lamina’s letter.

Board did firefighters’ funding right

To the Editor:

As participants in the Tredyffrin budget discussions of the last several weeks, we read with interest your article entitled “Funds for Fire Companies Are Restored.” While it is true the fire companies will receive the additional funding they desired in 2010, we believe a better title would have been “Tredyffrin Community Steps Forward.”

Township tax funds were not utilized to restore the funding because funding for every township-related service was reduced and no one from any of those departments – including the fire companies – ever stated they could not provide for the public’s safety without more. With the public safety intact, and in light of the challenging economy, the budget developed by the township manager with Board of Supervisors and significant community input is balanced and contains no real-estate property-tax increase in 2010. In our view therefore, one of the top stories this year is indeed the generosity of our community and a local government that in very challenging economic times made the difficult but correct decision to tighten our belts rather than first reaching out to our taxpayers to foot the bill.

With all that said, Tredyffrin’s community members – including members of the Board of Supervisors – worked hard to ensure that the fire companies received the $21,000 they desired. Among them, we note that John “C.T.” Alexander, chairman of the Republican Committee in Tredyffrin, informed the public during the township meeting last Monday that he and his committee members came forward with a $5,000 matching-fund pledge to help raise money for the fire companies. We also understand these are to be funds from individual members and not from any political-action committee. We very much appreciate this far-reaching level of charitable giving and are also hopeful that in the spirit of bipartisanship, the members of the Tredyffrin Democratic Committee may likewise choose to contribute.

Finally words cannot begin to express our gratitude to all those who stepped forward with generosity in difficult times, and to all of the individuals, businesses and organizations who gave so charitably in this effort. In any case we know the fire companies are pleased by these efforts because their presidents, Messrs. Tilden, Beatty and Roderick, each publicly expressed their gratitude for the funds raised. It proves that by working together as a community we can continue to keep Tredyffrin the great place it is.

Sincerely,

Robert W. Lamina, Paul Olson

Share or Like:

7 Comments

Add a Comment
  1. Interesting alternate title that Bob and Paul propose: ‘Tredyffrin Community Steps Forward’. Not entirely true when you consider that donations were solicited from Easttown and Radnor Township businesses, too. That’s right, donations from neighboring townships were solicited to ‘cover’ Tredyffrin’s budget cuts. Both of those other townships also raised taxes and did not cut their support of the fire service. I wonder how the elected officials in those municipalities feel about that.

  2. Just to be clear, you do understand that these funds were raised in order to make up for the 5% reduction in the Fire Company’s 2010 support, right? Since it’s for 2010, should the Fire Companies have gotten the money in 2009?

    1. Just to be clear, I think we’re all still waiting to hear what the process will be for collection of this money. Just the basics: Who?, What?, Where?, When? How? would be helpful whether it’s 2009 or 2010.

      I understand answering these questions on the 21st would have limited the Shock Doctrine effect, but at some point answers would be good.

  3. Just more smoke added to the smoke screen.

    Honestly, what was the point of putting this in the paper? I can only think of one reason: to try to justify their actions.

    Actions shouldn’t have to justify themselves. Actions should speak louder then words. Unfortunately, their actions are overcome by reactions that speak louder then their actions. They are forced to try to put words down to cover their tracks. I doubt it worked to anyone who has been following this.

  4. How do you feel about our elected officials in Tredyffrin going into Easttown and Radnor Townships to solicit funds without advising their elected officials or Township Managers in those towns of their actions? Did they get permits or permission to solicit? Better yet, why were the fire companies asked for guidance on how they should go about soliciting funds on their behalf? Was a surprise cardboard check presentation the appropriate way to deal with this? Why is this getting pushed off on neighboring municipalities?

    This a Tredyffrin problem and yes the 5% was still cut! The Board has shown that this was a bigger deal than a 5% cut. Maybe the new Board members can clean up this mess.

  5. How do you feel about our elected officials in Tredyffrin going into Easttown and Radnor Townships to solicit funds without advising their elected officials or Township Managers in those towns of their actions? Did they get permits or permission to solicit? Better yet, were the fire companies asked for guidance on how they should go about soliciting funds on their behalf?

    Was a surprise cardboard check presentation the appropriate way to deal with this? Why is this getting pushed off on neighboring municipalities?

    This a Tredyffrin problem and yes the 5% was still cut! The Board has shown that this was a bigger deal than a 5% cut. Maybe the new Board members can clean up this mess.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Community Matters © 2024 Frontier Theme