By: Fbodutchman on 7/2/10
Ed-
There are hundreds of communities with 100% volunteer fire departments including cities larger than Faribault. It is rediculous to think that the safety of the public is at risk by not having full time firefighters. I think the entire force should be volunteer.

By: Carsman on 7/2/10
I think it's important to fund things like the fire department and police department, two legitimate functions of government. I wonder what we could spend in these areas if we weren't wasting money in areas the government has no business being involved in.

You're willing to put your life on the line to protect my family and property, you should be paid well for it. Unfortunately, a certain political party always uses the threat of cutting vital services to scare us into accepting tax and spending increases while they waste money on other trivial programs that could have been better spent on funding parts of government that actually do what they're supposed to do - protect us.

By: LabRat on 7/6/10

I'd hardly call the Mayor and his minions leftists. The City should take a long hard look @ what our return is by having the existing fire and police set up.

As noted above, other communities (much larger than Fblt) manage to protect and serve under a far different organizational structure.

I know the departments concerned like pulling out their "run reports" as justification for their current structure. But many of these "runs" are a duplication of services with North Ambulance.

The question becomes.... If you remove the duplicated services, is this what the citizens of Faribault need at the costs currently expended?