Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Lost on What Mutual Aid is...

Board not thinking clearly

You missed the point entirely in your weekend editorial (Opinion, July 15) regarding the mutual aid pact for fire and police protection.

Of course, Moscow should help its neighbors with emergency assistance if needed.

However, Moscow should not subsidize the creation and maintenence of a shopping mall located in Washington on the Pullman-Moscow Highway.

I thank the council members who raised this issue and did not blindly sign the mutual aid pact. Council members Linda Pall and Aaron Ament were asking the right questions. They want to be assured the owners of this new mall are not going to rely on Moscow for fire and police protection. Emergencies, sure. Regular protection, no, they should pay for that themselves.

Why should Moscow taxpayers pay for regular protection for a mall that pays no taxes to Idaho or Moscow or Latah County?

I applaud council members Ament and Pall for thinking clearly and asking appropriate questions.

It’s time for the Daily News editorial board to do the same.

Bill London, Moscow

It seems to me those people who are writing letters like the one above have no clue what a mutual aid agreement is or what it does. Moscow and District 12 have had these agreements for years. There have been many car accidents right near the border where D12 came out and took care of business.

There also have been times where resources were low and Moscow was asked to come and help. But that is the point. D12 did not stay at home and ask Moscow to take care of the problem. D12 came to the problem, took care of as much as they could with their resources, then called for help when help was needed.

The city council is doing nothing more than trying to make as issue out of the Hawkins Development. They could careless about the mutual aid agreement.

I would like to point out something that I made bold above... I agree Moscow should not support it. A mutual aid agreement does NOT support it... I would like to also point out that "Moscow should not oppose the creation and maintenence of a shopping mall located in Washington on the Pullman-Moscow Highway."

1 comment:

April E. Coggins said...

Scotty: It seems that the MUTUAL part of the mutual aid pact is also lost on many Moscow people. They can't seem to imagine that Moscow would ever need outside help. Like a spoiled teenager, they can only concentrate on their own perceived burden in providing help to others.

When the grain elevators in Troy caught fire, Moscow responded. If the University Inn had caught fire while Moscow was responding in Troy, who would have responded to THAT fire?