A strong message

Now that the elections are over for the Bangor City Council, I feel it is time to bring to light a strong message sent by the voters of the city of Bangor.

It is obvious to all that for want of another pretender to one of the nine council thrones, one of the incumbents was grudgingly allowed to resume his seat. How can this be, given the highly crowed-about nickel tax break delivered to taxpapers? The reward for delivering this short-sighted prize is a willingness to allow new blood to try their hand at running this city.

After all, how can these people nearly break their arms patting themselves on the back when there is so much left undone? The obvious example is the lack of a working agreement with the city’s firefighters. Do the people of Bangor realize that the last cost of living allowance recieved by our firefighters was when Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas? I think they do.

There are people in our department who have seen their children enter high school, graduate, and are now enrolled in college while still working for the same wage as they were in June 1992, all the while absorbing the cost of all increases in insurance coverage. Perhaps they would also be interested to know that firegighters in the city of Portland earn 126 dollars per week more than Bangor firefighters.

Our current crop of councilors should be wary of leaving the firefighters and other city employees in such a miserable bind. Rest assured that, as professionals, we will continue to provide they very best fire and EMS services available in the state, and arguably, the nation.

We are well aware that the citizens of Bangor have come to expect this level of service, and in fact are quite proud of it. Perhaps we cannot take all the credit for unseating stagnant councilors, but we will continue to air our misgivings about their priorities until we are treated farily for the servies that we provide. We would hope that our councilors, both new and incumbent, recognize this fact. Don’t continue to neglect city employees for such a shallow and self-appreciating door prize as a nickel tax break. Ron Howell Bangor