After issuing an apology and promising to adopt the solution preferred by local firefighters to their two-year-old radio frequency concern Midway mayor and council are now hopeful that all of the officers and members of the Midway Volunteer Fire Department (MVFD) who resigned last week will return to the department.
Over two years ago West Boundary Highway Rescue (WBHR) radios were put on the same frequency as the MVFD. The fire department sees this as a safety issue and has long taken the position that the best fix for the problem would be to restore the radio frequency to the sole use of the fire department and make other arrangements for WBHR radios.
The timeline over the past two weeks saw the following goings-on:
A meeting to discuss safety concerns of the Midway fire department about sharing the radio frequency with WBHR was held on Thursday, April 11. Members of Council, village administration, RDKB CAO John MacLean, Midway Fire Chief Walter Osellame and WBHR Coordinator John Coburn attended the meeting with two representatives of Omega Communication participating by phone.
After a lengthy discussion at their April 15 meeting, and working from minutes of the April 11th meeting and an email response from Omega to some technical questions, council came up with what they believed to be the best choice for the safest and quickest resolution to the ongoing emergency radio issues.
When informed of council’s decision the next day Osellame resigned. Later that evening the rest of the volunteer fire fighters also turned in their pagers.
Council accepted Osellame’s resignation on Thursday. A meeting between council and the fire fighters was held on Friday evening, following which council passed a resolution to provide a second frequency for the fire department. Mayor Kappes told The Times that after the news of the decision was communicated to the fire department members began picking up their pagers on Friday evening.
The village issued a statement on Monday but on Tuesday evening, when the mayor opened a public budget input meeting at the community hall they had pulled their earlier statement and replaced it.
“It has come to Council’s attention that our previous statement is not clear, so we are issuing the following statement:
“Council of the Village of Midway acknowledges that we did not deal with the Fire Department’s safety concerns in a timely manner. We apologize for this error and ask that our residents do not lay any blame on any members of the Fire Department. Council wishes to again invite all those who have resigned to return to their positions with the Fire Department with Council’s full confidence and support. Council will work with the Fire Department, in consultation where appropriate, to ensure that no similar issue or concerns should arise again.”
The mayor declined to make any further comment to the press. Fire department officers have not returned calls from The Times since the story was first reported last week.