Monday, May 14, 2007

Something New

One of the things that I like best about my job is that I am constantly getting to do new and interesting things. The latest thing that I have been tasked with is conducting a needs and feasibility study of establishing a fire protection district in the area of the county in whicg I live.

Unbelievably fire protection in the unincorporated portions of the county is provided by a private for profit for company. In order to receive fire protection residents must pay a yearly subscription fee. The for profit fire department will put out a fire for non-subscribers as well, however non-subscribers are then forced to pay the full bill for fighting the fire. Apparently it starts at about two grand just for a fire truck just to show up, and goes up in price from there.

A number of area residents find this situation to be intolerable and have begun to agitate for change. As result I am now conducting a study on the establishment of a public fire protection district. I find this to be fascinating and fun because I get to dive headfirst into a topic that I have not previously had much exposure to. I would be miserable if had job the was solely composed of the same shit, day after day after day.

1 comment:

Betsy O'Donovan said...

That's fascinating. Around here, we have tons of volunteer departments for all the unincorporated areas; people take it extremely seriously. I can't imagine a private, for-profit company gaining a foothold.