On Tuesday, May 6, there is an important election taking place in Upper Pine River Fire Protection District. It is an election for two seats on the board of directors for the fire district. This year there are five people running for two open seats.
I am supporting Bill Kourim for one of the seats. Bill is probably not known very well in the community but he is a retired firefighter with 30-plus years with the Henderson Fire Department in Nevada. The other candidate I am supporting is myself, Roger Pennington. I have been on the board of directors now for 12 years and running for a fourth term. In 2004 we asked the people of the fire district to approve a bond issue to build stations and purchase fire equipment and promised if they did that we would improve the ISO rating in the fire district, which in turn would lower their insurance rates. We kept that promise and have one of the best ISO ratings in the Four Corners region.
We recently asked the voters to approve a mill-levy increase and promised that in 10 years we would retire our current debt and continue to provide the level of service we currently are providing. We are currently expanding Station 5 at the entrance to Forest Lakes to man a third station within our fire district, which will actually improve our service to the taxpayers. In the 12 years I have been on the board, we have gone from an all volunteer fire department with some EMTs and ambulances but could not transport to the hospital, to an all hazards department providing fire protection, EMS service and technical rescue as well as ambulance transport to the hospital with two stations manned 24/7 and working on a third with over 20 full-time employees and numerous part- time.
If you like the way your fire department is going I would ask for your support for Bill Kourim and myself, Roger Pennington, in the upcoming election.
Thank You,
Roger Pennington
Bayfield
