The Board of Directors of the Montrose Fire District recently voted for a 3 % cost of living pay increase for our firefighters. Board of Directors Paul McDermott and Pete Cassidy voted for the raise and refused to postpone the vote until the next regular Board meeting so that Board Members Steve Ellis and Greg Bollig, who were absent, could join them. Only Director Jim Haugsness voted against the pay hike. Under the new pay schedule, beginning firefighters start at $58,916, $10,000 above starting police officers. While the Grand Junction Fire Department took a 3% pay cut and Denver firefighters, police, and sheriffs’ departments all deferred any pay increase for a year, the Montrose Fire Board of Directors voted to make our firefighters some of the highest paid on the western slope. Our firemen and department leaders are well-respected, well-trained and extremely professional. I first fought a house fire with them a dozen years ago. No one reveres their talents and has more admiration for them more than I.
However, in this economy, with our district in need of another station on Spring Creek Road, this pay increase is simply wrong. The cost of living this past year went down, not up. I suggest that the Board of Directors reconsider the last vote and rescind the unjustified pay increase. Any surplus funds should go toward another station, just like the voters decided two years ago. I encourage anyone wanting to express an opinion to attend the next Fire District Board of Directors meeting at the main Fire Station at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 19
An election for the Board will take place next spring. Good people sometimes make bad decisions and a firefighter pay raise in this economic climate is a bad decision, given the firefighters’ existing pay rate.
John W. Nelson
Montrose
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