Feud? Seems perfectly in keeping with the standards of the position. The three incumbents have been feuding with most of the cities in the county for the last several years. And, lately they have also, via the R Central Commitee, been feuding with any other R who might want to exercise their right to seek election.

Vern and Roger may not be perfect but they are a lot better than the pair of back room schemers they are running against.

Regarding the Boise Fire Union’s support of Councilman Vern Bisterfeldt through e-mails, etc.: This is Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in any campaign. Nothing new or out of the ordinary unless local, state or federal elections or other laws are somehow breached. I support the Ada County Paramedics. Regarding Councilman TJT’s support of Vern Bisterfeldt: Vern supported him, Vern supported former Commish Paul Woods, Tilman and Yzaguirre supported Paul Woods, Tilman supports Bob McQuade’s opponent for Ada County Assessor, Meridian Mayor Tammy de Weerd endorsed Woods, the R-central committee endorsed the incumbents, yada yada yada. I couldn’t vote for TJT, because I live in Meridian. I woulda if I coulda. I can vote for Bisterfeldt-Simmons in the general election if they win the primary because it is an at-large county seat. In the primary I have to vote as a Democrat to vote for myself. I also might vote for Larry Rincover in the general election because he is a Democrat. I might not if he doesn’t meet my standards. The point that I tried to make in my SELL VERN AND ROGER spiel in a previous post is that people vote based on what strikes close to home — signs, pets, open spaces, EMS, transit, ethics, experience, the economy, VETERANS status, job status, political preference, and a host of other reasons. I generally don’t make up my mind until ELECTION DAY when I am in the voting booth and have all the facts before me to make an informed choice, which is why I am not a big proponent of absentee and early voting and am an opponent of closed primaries.

I’d hate to vote for someone else and find out later I coulda had a V and R!

Tell us oh great G-ster, what evil lurks behind TJ Thomson’s Verndorsement?

EDITOR NOTE–Not, lighten up. The humor question is: “If he likes Vern so much, why is he trying to get rid of him? 🙂 See, if Vern wins he leaves TJ’s council and…..never mind you wouldn’t understand.

The little I know of Vern is from watching him in action. Notably, in a couple of failed attempts to get Ada County and Boise City to work together, rather than at odds with each other. He may have failed in those attempts, but the fault is not his. That claim rests with two sitting county commissioners and one former commissioner.

He didn’t have to embark on those missions. But, the fact that he chose to is a mark of his willingness to reach out and find consensus. That is a rare thing in politicians, especially today. I admire him for his sense of probity and his willingness to act for the benefit of area citizens. I intend to vote for him.

I know Roger less well, but I know this. The Foothills Policy Plan took the better part of 35 years to come to fruition. It is the product of 7 state, federal and local agencies, including both Boise City and Ada County, coming together to protect the foothills. It is one of the best, and most popular, acts of governmental cooperation this area has ever seen. Under Roger’s tenure as commissioner, the Plan moved forward. His successor, and current opponent, was instrumental in decimating the plan. Roger’s is the better path. I intend to vote for him as well.

Regards,
Tony Jones

Personally, I see a lot of wasted tax dollars every time I see a full size fire engine followed closely by an ambulane rolling to a medical call.

I’m not a medic or a hose dragger but I deal with both on a regular basis. I’ve been told that there are Federal rules that govern fire and ems response times and that they can lose funding if they don’t get there fast. That’s all well and good, but if I call 911 because I fell off my bike on the greenbelt, does it really take three firefighters and two paramedics to handle it? I doubt it.

I suggest training current firemen to the level of paramedics (or absorb medics and give them fire training) and give them a smaller, cheaper rig they can drive instead of an engine or ladder truck to medical calls. Those trucks can’t be very fuel-efficient, not to mention the taxpayers are shelling out a lot of extra bucks to have 5 or more first responders on every call. This seems redundant to me and a waste of money. In these tight times, we can’t afford to throw more money away on government services than we already do.

Hey Editor, maybe this issue would be a good one to dig into since I’m sure its costing the taxpayers millions.

Like I said, I think the Feds mandate a fire engine to go on all those calls because of response times. Boise doesn’t have an ambulance in every fire station. Boise Fire has done a great job locating their stations throughout town and they seem to be the first ones at the scene most of the time. So why not have a BFD ambulance in every station if they are already going to respond anyway?

IdahoImmigrant
Nice handle, but my original point was the redundancy involved in sending 3 firemen and 2 medics to every medical call. Like I said earlier I am neither, but speaking as a taxpayer this seems like a waste of money.

I am not debating the specifics of each station ,etc. Its clear you have a personal stake in this issue, which is fine, but my point is that times are tight and gov’t needs to look closely at what we really need.