'God Put the Fire Out...'

What if there was a fire and no one came?

This could have happened with our Saint Marie Fire Department.

On Tuesday, July 27th, the Saint Marie Fire Board held their monthly meeting.

This meeting started off as most board meetings do, but by the time the Chief's report came around, it was clear there were issues that needed to be heard.

It was a very contentious St. Marie Fire Board meeting. Chairman Patrick Trotter did a rather magnificent job in maintaining decorum and order what with the constant outbursts from both the board members and at times, the public.

Chairman Trotter's booming voice had to be raised on several occasions during the meeting to restore order.

He professed at the beginning of the meeting that these constant outbursts from the participants would not be tolerated.

He then opened the meeting up to the printed agenda, which was available to the public.

I counted 21 people in the rather warm room and

things even got hotter as the meeting progressed.

St. Marie Fire Chief August Aho and most of his fire fighters were upset and eventuallywalked out of the meeting at 37 minutes into the meeting.

Chief Aho handed in his resignation as Fire Chief, but the Board decided to not accept the resignation until Vice President of Montana State Volunteer Firefighters Association Bob Hanson and former Fire Chief and Fire Board member Rob Esaias could speak to Chief Aho.

The board quickly voted to have Esaias acting as Fire Chief in the interim.

We were told by Chairman Trotter that a special board meeting would be held on Wednesday, August 4 to officially re-instate August Aho as St. Marie Fire Department's Chief.

There had been questions floating around the community since our July 17 early morning fire that was only 3 miles away from Saint Marie, concerning the decision of our Fire Chief to take all of our equipment out to that fire.

Bob "Sparky" Hanson, who has 35-plus-years experience with fire protection, stated Chief Aho's decision this night was totally justified and better that Aho was at the fire instead of Saint Marie.

We have three pieces of fire equipment that were all running and fully loaded with water, five members responding to the fire and were only three miles away from Saint Marie. It was 2 a.m. in the morning when everyone was home, which made it easier to get back to Saint Marie quickly if this fire moved into our community.

When asked about Long Run and Saint Marie's use of water to put the fire out, Hanson stated that the rain put the fire out.

"There was no tactic that we used that put that fire out. God put the fire out!"

To ease everyone in Saint Marie's mind on do we have a Fire Department, the answer is, yes, we do. The firefighters did walk out of the meeting. But, as Bob Hanson reassured us that our current firefighters are willing to stay and they want to protect Saint Marie!

We were never without our fire crew.

Residents here need to make sure that our wonderful volunteer firefighters are thanked and tell them how much they are appreciated in protecting our community.

At this time, our Fire Department and Fire Board are asking for our communities help. We need more volunteer firefighters, especially those that can respond during the day time when most of our firefighters are working in Glasgow or surrounding area.

Give Chief Aho a call and sign up.

Speaking with Chairman Pat Trotter of the Fire Board, he explained a few things about what is needed. Something that we didn't know or understand until now is that the St. Marie Rural Fire District Board of Trustees manages and governs every part of our Rural Volunteer Fire Department including equipment, personnel, medical services and our Fire Chief.

Pat explained he would like to establish an EMT here in Saint Marie affiliated with Frances Mahon in town to cut the time by 2/3rds to getting here from there.

When Esaias was Fire Chief, he was certified along with three others. But, at this time, no one on the Fire Department has gone for training which could save lives.

Pat retired from Valley County and was a 911 dispatcher.

Rob Esaias just let us know he is on the Fire Department as a firefighter and also remains on the Fire Board.

Montana Code states he can do both.

On another note, Pat Trotter stated that after going through the bid process, we now have a 3,500 gallon water Tanker coming.

Also, Long Run will eventually be loaning us a Brush Truck.

Due to Covid, when Long Run receives the equipment they have requested, they will in turn loan us a Brush Truck.

Pat Trotter also mentioned the Fire Department needs a driver for the 4,000 gallon water tender called the "Green Monster."

This tender would be kept in Saint Marie for emergency use. It is not called the Green Monster for nothing!

FLEOA mandate for COVID vaccine.

FLEOA is Concerned by the Biden Administration's Federal Workforce Vaccine Mandate For those Federal Law enforcement officers in St. Marie and Glasgow - both retired and still active duty. We are in District 72 for the State of Montana.

President Larry Cosme issued the following statement:

"As an association representing those men and women charged with protecting the Constitutional rights of all Americans, including the right to privacy and choice, we are concerned by any move that would mandate the COVID-19 vaccine among federal employees," President Cosme said.

"FLEOA fully supports individuals who voluntarily choose to be vaccinated, agree that it is safe and the most effective means of combatting the pandemic, and encourage our members to be vaccinated," Cosme continued.

"However, forcing people to undertake a medical procedure is not the American way and is a clear civil rights violation no matter how proponents may seek to justify it.

"We would therefore encourage the administration to work collaboratively with FLEOA, and other federal employee groups, to incentivize all federal employees to be vaccinated, rather than penalize those who do not.

"Make no mistake, we support being vaccinated as the most effective path and means to eliminate the COVID-19 virus but not at the cost of our Constitutional rights that we protect and hold as self-evident," Cosme concluded.

On Another Note

Pat Trotter, wearing many hats in St. Marie, is also the President/Chairman for Saint Marie Co-op.

Work is still ongoing right now at the building on Country Club/5th street entrance for the new Co-op and Convenience store. It is the first building that you see as you enter the confines of St. Marie!

The thrift store is taking in "Goodwill quality" items for sale and we might state it is doing quite well with outside the area purchases being made as well as locally from Boeing personnel. Lets keep up the support.

On a sad note, Postal Officer Marylou Remington has informed us that her project for making an ice skating rink or area here in St. Marie has come to a halt because of possible ramifications due to concerned liabilities.

Sorry, Marylou, you try so hard to improve this community with your kind heart and artistic ability only to have yet another obstacle placed in the way.

Eventually, you will win out.

Gas lines are being replaced in St. Marie hence the reason residents are seeing MDU's heavy equipment in action digging those massive holes.

So far, there are only two on Locust street but we have been told by MDU there will be more.

Water break on Pine and Locust! Not really, we asked District manager Rob Esaiasabout it and he assured us that he and his assistant are merely fixing a curb riser.

Not a major thing, just time consuming.

Attention St. Marie!

The Fire District now has another option for the public to provide input to the District.

This is a notice that was handed out at the Fire Board meeting. People are still invited to come to the meetings but this gives you an option to get your thoughts and opinions to the Board members.

The email address is: [email protected]

The flier states this is an attempt to accommodate more of the residents of the community, and provide for another avenue of open communication with the community. Please provide contact information in any emails, but it is not required.

Food for Thought

If I/we may digress for a moment, I would like to interject this missive as in the "Food for thought" category!

A donkey was tied to a tree. One night a ghost cut the rope and released the donkey free.

The donkey went and destroyed the crops in an adjacent farmers land.

Infuriated, the farmer's wife shot the donkey, thus killing it.

The donkey's owner was devastated at his loss and in reply he shot dead the farmer's wife.

Angered by his wife's death, the farmer took a sickle and killed the donkey's owner.

The wife of the donkey's owner got so angry that she and her sons set the farmer's house on fire.

The farmer looking at his house turned to ashes killed the wife and children of the donkey's owner.

Finally, when the farmer was full of regret, he asked the ghost as to why did it kill them all?

The ghost replied, "I killed no one. I just released a donkey that was tied to a rope. It's all of you who released the devils within you which resulted into everything bad that occurred thereafter.

Today people are like that ghost. They keep releasing donkeys on a daily basis. And people react and argue with each other, hurt each other, without having a second thought.

In the end, the Monday morning quarterbacks dodge all responsibilities.

So it is our responsibility to NOT react on every donkey that is released by these people and preserve our relationship with our friends, relatives and our community.