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How about our Police? How about the OCC, How about DLM? How about those trash collection golf carts?
I don’t think just eliminating our Safety Department Dispatchers goes far enough. Why have local Police when our tax dollars pay for a County Sheriff’s Department? They already have jurisdiction throughout the county. Couldn’t we save a huge amount of money by just using them? They are already in place and ready to go. And with the new Countywide Dispatch System, can’t they be dispatched just as fast as our own Safety Department?
Of course, they may not get here as fast as what we’ve been used too, but what the heck, we’ll save hundreds of thousands of dollars.
While we’re at it, why not close the OCC and use the Dayton YMCA. It’s centrally located in the county to serve everyone. And think of the huge amount of money we could save. Who needs all those special programs tailored to our community?
And why stop there? Maybe we could persuade DLM to close too. After all, we have WalMart just down the road and it’s so much bigger with so many more things to buy.
Who needs all those specialized foods and outstanding customer service anyway? So what if there’s nobody to bag and help carry out our groceries if we need it? We’re too spoiled anyway. And Lord knows we really don’t need that Foie Gras anyway.
Refuse Collectors drive right up to our garages? My parents live just two miles from here. They must put refuse in special bags. Then put the special bags into a special big green container. Then wheel the special green container out to the street for pickup in the rain, the snow and whatever. Think of all the time and money we could save if we eliminated those cute little garbage golf carts.
The problem is, we would probably drive to the Centerville DLM to buy the Foie Gras, skip the exercise classes at the Central YMCA, get fat and lazy and not put our Special Green Cans out by the street which could result in a call to the Police (via the Centralized County Dispatch) and in several days or weeks, maybe they would get around to sending someone out to investigate.
Is our Community Special? Yes. Do we enjoy Special Services? Yes.
Do we pay for it and expect it. Yes. You have read about the Dispatchers concerns in the paper. They are right.
Emergency, and especially, non-emergency events cannot possibly be handled as quickly with a countywide dispatch service. So what if the ambulance gets dispatched 45 seconds later? Tell that to the person having a heart attack. So what if you get locked out of your car in 10 degree weather and have to wait until the priorities of the entire county gets serviced first. Get tough.
Laugh all you want but once the city starts chipping away at our specialized services where will it end?
It’s time to pick up the phone and call the Mayor and City Manager (298-0600). Tell them that you don’t want to be part of any Countywide Dispatch Service. Tell them that you want the same special, personalized service that we have come to expect with all of our city services. You can make a difference if you voice your opinion now.
The nerve center of any Safety Department is the Dispatch Center. And your city officials are about to cut that nerve.
Jerry Sanders
Oakwood
I am an eighth-grader at Oakwood Junior High School, where we’ve launched a student-organized charity project inspired by Oprah Winfrey in honor of the holidays: our “Pay it Forward” Campaign, benefiting Daybreak. The students of Mrs. Kim Gilbert, an English/Speech and Drama teacher at OJHS, received two generous donations of $1000 from parents to use to benefit our community. We chose to put the money toward funding a new facility for Daybreak, the only shelter in Dayton that helps homeless kids, gets them back into schools, and gives them a safe home. Since we live in Oakwood, where pretty much all kids have a roof over our heads and a warm bed to sleep in, it’s hard for us to imagine what it’s like for other kids who don’t have somewhere to go, especially in this cold winter weather. We’d like to do our best to help these kids by “paying it forward” and spreading the word
about helping out others in our greater Dayton community.
If anyone in our smaller Oakwood community would be interested in helping our cause by either a donation of money or of other helpful goods, such as furniture, (which it would helpful for you to store until Fall 2007 when their new facility opens because they have nowhere to keep it) they should contact our teacher/advisor, Kim Gilbert, at 478-9252, or Lisa Fry, Daybreak Development contact person at 395-4600 ext. 112. We really appreciate any assistance you could give us. It means a lot to us to help out fellow kids and make a difference, especially during the holiday season. If it were us in their position, we would want someone to reach out and help us, too.
Thank you so much!
Sincerely,
The OJHS eighth grade class
Thanks to our wonderful neighbors who pitched in with log burners, chairs, food and drinks for our first neighborhood sing-a-long. A special thanks to Charlie Campbell for his outstanding accordian accompaniment and lyrics. (Note for next year - everyone bring a flashlight). Wishing you all a happy holiday!
Steve and Lu Ann Stanley
Oakwood
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