This letter is to ask for your support in the upcoming levy lift for East Jefferson Fire Rescue.

EJFR has not had a rate increase since 2011. Their budget, as it now stands, can only be increased by 1 percent a year. This is unsustainable and forces our emergency services to defer critical equipment purchases (fire and medical) and from implementing a robust recruitment program.

I offer a case in point: Back and neck pulls and muscle strains are the number one cause of injuries to EMTs (NIOSH 2018).

While working as an EMT in Wyoming in 2006 that EMS agency made a move from manually operated gurneys (stretchers in the back of the ambulances) to battery-powered ones. The decrease in injuries to personnel was quantifiable. In contrast, the switch from outdated manually-operated stretchers to battery-powered ones was implemented in our community just within the last year.

Certainly, the need and desire was always present, just not the funds to make it happen.

We cannot ask our outstanding fire-and-rescue service to meet our needs in an emergency while we continue to stifle their best efforts with the lack of the necessary funding they deserve.

Please vote yes for the levy lift for EJFR.

John Gonnella
Volunteer EMT
East Jefferson Fire Rescue