The sad reality of a failed vote! Our Valley Home Fire Station will be closing. We hope temporarily, but the reality is our fire service will soon be coming out of Oakdale. My heart breaks for our community, for our school children, for our seniors, for all of us. Our community will terribly miss our Valley Home station. I know firsthand the heartbreak of a desperate, panicked call for help. I hope none of you ever have to make that call. I will never know if the difference is a 2 minute response from our Valley Home station or a 9 minute response from Oakdale could have saved my husband, but I do know a few dollars on our tax bill could have kept the doors open in Valley Home, full time! The other true reality of this failed vote, is the dollars saved on your taxes, will now be replaced by higher homeowners insurance.

Like most of you I hate even the thought of more taxes, but our reality in 2020 is much different than it was many years ago when we were able to pass a measure to fund and keep the doors open on our fire station! I remember countless meetings with Valley Home and Knights Ferry working together to keep our fire service. I remember walking precincts with Chief Bill Houk, it was a tireless effort and eventually the measure passed! Rules and regulations have changed drastically over the past 20 years, the cost of keeping the doors open and the engines rolling is much more expensive for our fire service in California. OSHA demands more, the cost of fully trained firefighters and state mandated rules for equipment and stations have skyrocketed in our state. I hope our Valley Home station will one day be able to open its doors again and serve the community! Hopefully this will be a temporary closure. We need our fire station open.

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As always you may reach me at winniemullins51@gmail.com. Until next time, “Happy Trails to All”!