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County wants to be the big dog

It is with a great deal of dismay, disgust and a fair bit of anger that I read of the rift between the town and county.

Editor,

It is with a great deal of dismay, disgust and a fair bit of anger that I read of the rift between the town and county.

While most of the finger pointing has been aimed at the town, I would suggest that even though the town has taken the high road and not negotiated through the media, there are a number of questions that need to be asked of county council as well.

1) If a regional fire department was desired, why was it not proposed to the town instead of giving notice that it was going to be? This is not a regional fire department but a county department which desires to take over the Ponoka department.

2) When problems were developing, why did they not request a meeting of elected people without administration present to see if there was some common ground?

3) If the county was going to set up their own department, why did they not interview some experienced personnel for the top jobs?

It wouldn’t appear to me as an outsider looking in that the county has decided to empire build and have forgotten that their job is to protect the assets of the ratepayers and not to be bullies.

As a former councilor, I would remind everyone that we had some bad feelings in the past years and it takes a lot of time and effort to get past this.

I would suggest mediation or some other mechanism to get the two sides talking and listening.

Neither municipality can afford this foolishness, which, it would appear, has no grounds in common sense but more in a desire by the county to the big dog.

D. Vern Dick