Published: April 14, 2008 11:32 pm            

SOUND OFF: Published April 15

To the individual who writes about the paid or volunteer fire department. Let’s not cloud the fact that most paid departments are soaking the tax payers just as bad if not worse. Let’s assume even 5 people in the department are making $100,000 a year that’s a half million that is being paid out to the paid department. Now if you need a new truck that is also paid by the taxpayer. On the flipside, the only thing being paid by the taxpayer for a volunteer maybe the fire headquarters and the occasional truck. Most do fundraising to support themselves, again all volunteer.

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Another thing about Ryan Miller that nobody has mentioned how did he get better. I’ll tell you how he had a 2.73 GAA last year this year 2.64 GAA, Last year .911 SAV% this year .906 SAV%. He also has 4 less win’s compared to last year. When any team gives up two guys with a combined total of 164 points you can’t blame the goalie. By the way we had eight guys last year who had 50 or more points this year three.

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It’s nice but rare to see the council step aside and allow the NT Mayor to go through with his plan to open the Yacht Club. They seem to obstruct progress at every turn. Good thing we have a strong Mayor in Mr. Soos who can get things done despite silly obstacles put in his way by the council. good luck Mr. Soos.

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I questioned the rationale for keeping the kids in school during a bomb threat. In Ken-Ton, last year was a year of continual bomb threats at the two high schools and also the middle schools. Every time someone wrote “bomb” on the wall, the whole school was evacuated to another school, which not only disrupted the threatened school, but also disrupted the receiving school. The high school hosted an informational night with the police department and school personnel. First, when a threat is discovered, they determine the validity and the threat to life. If it was determined a real threat, the students would be evacuated. When it is determined by experts that it is a prank, or a hoax, an immediate lockdown occurs, and a complete check of the school is performed. Since the kids are not evacuated and school is not totally disrupted, it served no purpose to the kids doing these crimes. Without total disruption, the bomb threats stopped. Now it’s getting down to business, teaching the kids.

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Attention N.T. Planning Commission: Make a decision! Please!

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In response to the getting rid of the volunteers and moving all the paid men down to headquarters so they can have their neat little gathering spot- my question is, when there’s a fire, who’s going to fight it? The volunteers are the ones who fight the fires. The paid men only drive the truck and stay by it. They have never gone into harm’s way, and never will.

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This Sound Off is for the mayor. In today’s paper, the council and the mayor reached an agreement about the marina they supposedly sold that hasn’t gone through, and they are talking about running it themselves. Since when is the city in charge of running a marina, they can’t even run our own town. And saying it can make $40,000 in net revenue each year. Is it going to run itself for free? People have to be paid, there are utilities and taxes. I don’t think it can make $40,000 a year, you would have to should us.

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This is just for the residents around East Robinson street. We have two abandoned houses that are boarded over there. Is the town waiting? They have been empty for over a year. Is the town waiting for someone to get raped, kidnapped or murdered there, or is it going to turn into a crack house? What is the town doing about it? Is the building inspector doing his job? If my grass isn’t cut, he’s on my butt. If my paint is chipping, he’s on my butt. We have two houses over here, one off of East Robinson and on East Robinson on the corner, and they have been boarded up for over a year now. What’s going on, mayor?

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I would like to know why the teacher who was arrested in the paper today was not charged for driving without a license. His license was suspended, how come he was not charged? He was only charged for speeding, failure to keep right, and failure to stop at a stop sign. Seems to me there’s a little bit of favoritism here, just like they did with everybody else that works for the city. There’s something wrong with our city. I think it needs to be investigated a little more.

        

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