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. 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 more than 30 years with the North Las Vegas Fire Department. The other candidate I am supporting is myself. I have been on the board of directors now for 12 years and am 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 district’s ISO rating, which would lower district residents’ insurance rates. We kept that promise and have one of the best ISO ratings in the Four Corners.
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. We now have more than 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 I in the upcoming election.
Roger Pennington
Bayfield
