I worked at Hermosa Cliff Fire as Chief Dan Noonan’s administration assistant for three years and contributed to the establishment of the current EMS/fire system, DFRA, for another 4 years. I witnessed the before and after and believe our community is served better with its current system. There were occasions, before this consolidation, that 911 dispatched a call to our district, volunteers were radioed and no one showed up. I then phoned our volunteers (via landline) trying to find available responders. On occasion, I was the (nonskilled) ambulance driver and Noonan the paramedic.
Chiefs Allen Clay, Mike Dunaway and Noonan (along with his bird, Rojo) met regularly for years brainstorming a solution to better serve the whole community. When DFRA began in 2002, I observed a territorial relinquishing process occur among the city paid staff and volunteers (including board members) of Hermosa Cliff Fire and Animas Fire and Mercy Paramedics.
Though not working with DFRA currently, my hunch is the current resistance of the two former Animas board members is a carryover of these feelings. I also wonder at the validity of some information they printed in the paid ad I noticed in the Herald, which motivated me to share my viewpoints.
DFRA has made many adjustments to its original funding plan. This tug-of-war is costing DFRA money that should be spent on other life-saving priorities. Let’s let it move forward. I live in the city of Durango and am willing that this portion of my tax burden shift slightly to accommodate a streamlined, nonduplicating system (not perfect, but nothing is). I will vote “yes” and concentrate on weightier issues such as plastic bags and gay marriage.
I don’t have a dog in this fight unless I count my children, grandchildren and myself. We have a more efficient, streamlined service now. That I can state with certainty. I was there. And I don’t care if it is called Animas, Hermosa or DFRA.
Barbara Fleming
Durango
