Letter to the editor;

In response to your recent letter to the editor, which I still can’t figure out why the Star Gazette would publish a anonymous letter criticizing community volunteers, I, Mike Mikrot, would like to correct some of your statements and answer some questions. First off, the reason we need $50,000 is to run a fire department that is safe and efficient. Currently our newest truck is a 1987 tanker that we purchased this summer from a neighboring fire department as they bought a new one at the price of $148,000. The $10,051 we paid for this truck was donated to us from Don Verkus in memory of his son Joe, who was on the department and was killed in a motorcycle accident. Our second newest truck is a 1984 and is currently being repaired so we can put it in service. This truck was donated to us from the city of North Liberty, Iowa after Jon Zuk, a former local resident, told them of our insufficient budget while serving on their fire department. Our current #1 fire pump is a 1981, and other than the constant battle of small problems, like not always starting or electrical issues, it is a good fire pump. Luckily its always been for training or maintenance when it has not started. The fleet gets worse from here, but enough on that. Trucks are only a small part, we also need turnout gear for every member, tools, hose, buildings, and all are supposed to be NFPA and OSHA compliant. Are you still laughing?

In my dream world we would not need a fire department. As far as wanting another $100 from residents, this is false information due to poor journalism. I’m still wondering how a journalist can walk into a city meeting over half way through, write down some numbers that were being kicked around the table and print them on the front page of the newspaper as facts! It is not the first time either! The statement that I made was that if every household in the four entities that we serve paid $100 per year we would have a base budget in the high $80,000’s range and would not be here discussing fire fund. The fact is we are asking for $50,000 and it will be spread out over all property owners, not just households, so the number will be less than half of that which comes out to be a little more than $4.00 a month. The 2009 budget from tax money is $21,806 and the rest is donations and grants. The $120 per month for basic water and sewer service is not my battle, but as a rural resident that put in a new well and septic system in 2004 at the combined cost of over $27,000, I think $120 per month is reasonable. If everyone resigned, like you think they should, who would do the work? I have not seen a line of people waiting to take these positions. The only interest I see at the meetings is a couple journalists. Believe it or not there is a lot more to the stories than you read in the newspaper.

Now for creative ways to fund our department you are welcome to plan and organize any fund raiser you want . We will gladly accept the money and subtract it from the proposed budget. We will even help out at the events, all I ask is that you use your spare time to organize them. Even if you were a member, our current $6 per run pay would not apply for the time spent preparing and organizing events. For the $2000 per year for staff this won’t even cover personal money lost and spent by the officers. My idea of volunteering is donating time not spending your own money. The proposed budget is not just to cover 10 house fires a year, but for all fires and medical calls as our budget covers first responders also. New potential fire fighters must complete 120 hours of training and after that is complete our fire fighters we will decide if you qualify for our department. Oh, and this training costs about $900 per student for tuition.

If you are aware of any new grants out there I would be very excited to apply for them. We try to apply to every place we can without making a full time job out of it. If we had more funding maybe we could hire a full time grant writer. At one of the city meetings it was asked why volunteer fire fighters have to be the ones to rattle the tin cup to raise money for the protection of the community? Why not the community support their volunteers?

I think this could be just the thing the Sturgeon Lake Fire Department could use right now. I have had more people call and stop by to say how much they support the fire department since they read this mindless letter and for that we are very appreciative. Maybe it will spark a few people to put in an application. Maybe more people will attend our annual turkey bingo at the Embassy on November 20. Maybe someone will show up to a meeting and get the facts. Any interest in the Sturgeon Lake Fire Department or any local fire department for that matter is a good thing. If only people attended meetings and heard all the facts, instead of basing opinions from one sided news paper articles that only cover controversial statements and numbers, we could solve many issues at hand.

To be a Fire Fighter or First Responder requires hard work, loyalty, integrity, trust, dedication, courage, accountability, knowledge and much more. Your recent letter, and more so, your signature to your letter, shows that you are not qualified!

Sturgeon Lake Fire Chief
Michael D. Mikrot

Editor’s note: We stand behind our headline article dated October 8th and believe it to contain factual reporting.