I-695 failed to cut fire protection

In regard to the letter to the editor from Thomas Condon (“City leaders making solid decisions,” July 14):

So the great advance of free thought from the Greeks through the Enlightenment to the modern miracle of American democracy has come to this. Unless you agree with specific financial choices in any given local government, your disagreement automatically gets you labeled as not “forward-thinking” and not “right-minded.”

The survival of fire protection in Mountlake Terrace was never in danger because of I-695. The fire department’s budget has increased regularly. That is both before and after current City Manager Connie Fessler began work here in 1995, before and after I-695 in 1998, and before and after consolidation with Fire District No. 1 began in 2001. From 2002 to 2003, the department’s costs will rise 13 percent and from 1995 to 2003 the increase is 60 percent in just eight years. Where are the “reduced costs?”

Asking the question does not make someone wrong-minded, does it? Asking the question also does not make someone against firefighters or their mission. Only politicians make believe that larger numbers than last year can somehow be construed as reduced. Are some of our firefighters really politicians of another stripe?

Mountlake Terrace