No. 2: Questions deserve answers

By Staff
August 25, 2002
Meridian City Councilman Barbara Henson posed some interesting questions at a budget hearing the other day for the Meridian Fire Department. When she learned that no money had been recommended for necessary improvements at the city's decrepit Fire Station No. 2, she demanded to know why and what Fire Chief Bunky Partridge planned to do about it.
These are legitimate questions and we think Henson is absolutely right that actions need to be taken in the short term to correct the deplorable conditions under which firefighters at No. 2 are forced to live. This is the very least that should be done.
If the city intends to build a replacement station, taxpayers ought to know the details, particularly the cost and timetable. Otherwise, the concept of "planning" for a new station will likely go on forever.
Even with all of the other needs in city government and in the Meridian Fire Department, the plain truth is that the firefighters at No. 2 deserve better. It really is as simple as that. City voters should demand that their elected officials move immediately to improve conditions at No. 2.