A View Down the Rabbithole

Composing your first issue-oriented posting on your own blog is akin to confronting a large freshly-gessoed canvas. To mar the pure vastness of its unblemished surface, you better have a masterpiece in mind. Ergo, I have been conducting research and preparing a text that discusses how Gray’s antiquated land use policies and regulations are costing the taxpayer dearly.

However, events often propel us in directions contrary to our plans. The simmering pot that is the future of the Gray Fire Rescue Department has boiled over and seems to preoccupy the imagination of the public and dwellers in the blogosphere. I suppose it’s a welcome relief to character assassination de jour.

The future of the Gray Fire Rescue Department is immensely important to this community and to the volunteer members that both have to contend with the grief of losing their long-time mentor and Chief amidst assaults on the very fabric of their organization from the political leaders who are supposed to provide support not dismemberment in this trying hour.

The County Dispatch issue is a complex boondoggle that has been slowly unraveling and will be the exclusive subject of a future posting.

For now however, I am perplexed by the lack of any planning for a smooth succession of Chief Barton’s position. The Council knew about the Chief’s failing health a year ago, and yet there was no successional procedure to be immediately implemented upon the Chief 's passing- no decision for either a full or part time position, no supplimental funds added to the FY07-08 budget to finance the competative and inevitably higher salary, no protocols, schedules, or timetables…nothing except the apparent perfection of the art of muddling through.

Ultimately it is the Town Manager’s decision on who should fill the shoes but it is Council who sets the parameters, the job description, and the budget.

Yet, Ms. Cabana doesn’t appear to be providing any clarity or direction to the matter. Apologists will say she is busy learning the ropes.

Sorry, but get unbusy.

The GFR is the largest department in town government with the most number of employees, the most expensive collection of capital equipment, the most problematic equipment replacement schedule, the added complexity of hosting the largest group of community volunteers in Town government, and still to this day, the organization is lacking a department head.

Albeit undesireable, Gray could survive without a library, without a recreation department, without a cable committee, we manage to survive without a local police department, and we could survive without a town manager (if we return to selectmen form of government), but could we survive without a fire department? Ask your insurance agent for starters.

So why relegate our Fire Department to last on the list for attention, after the Clerk, and the Librarian, and after the Council and Manager bite off another huge mouthful in contemplating fundementsal changes at Public Works and the Transfer Station.-two town departments which enjoy the benefits of in-place Department Heads ? Perhaps the answer lies in today’s Monument which reports that Ms. Cabana has decided to withhold filling the Chief’s position until after Council’s deliberation on the Dispatch center. Is this further procrastination because Ms. Cabana fears that a new Chief would oppose such an ill-advised decision? After all, the new Chief would be a much better qualified to judge the comparative value of Gray Dispatch than Ms. Cabana or the Council would be. Or are there advantages in keeping the department members leaderless and in flux?

Even more disturbing the revelation that the 1st Deputy Chief, Bob Ryan has been given the responsibilities of performing all of Chief Barton’s administrative duties, but has been denied the moniker “Acting Chief” by Ms. Cabana, presumably because she does not wish to lend him false expectations. Such an excuse is unimaginative at best and ultimately insulting to a man that has served the Gray Fire Rescue Department selflessly for 20+ years. Bob Ryan is a big boy and he will take whatever is thrown at him. But he deserves a lot better treatment than this.

I’m not sure what rabbithole Ms. Cabana is leading us down, but I sure don’t like the view. And neither should the good people of Gray.