Reply #12: Keith

[sweetapogee]

McCall was and is a very good guy we all agree on that. Even the NRA gave him an A rating.

Not to be a nit picker, but there are only 22 fire districts in CC and all of them are volunteer. There are a few volunteer BLS outfits but no volunteer ALS so by definition there are not now nor has there ever been any volunteer paramedics in the county. The 6 BLS ambulance outfits bill for their services same as the county (LAA) ALS provider. The remaining QRS are funded by their respective fire companies.

I don't expect the current rep to meet Keith's ability to get money into the county but to be fair he has only been at the job for a few months and Keith had it for approx 28 years and was after all the speaker of the house. But that is beside the point I'm trying to make, which is what speaker McCall told me to my face. If I know anything about life in the big county it's is the how and mechanics of CC PA funding for fire and EMS.

I can tell you this though, a couple of years ago Keith helped us with a grant worth 100K. Very much appreciated but so full of conditions as to make it almost not worth having. And this may sound like a lot of money but that is the only money we have from his office in the entire time he was state rep., so nice as he is and I wish him well in the future, the only big winner in the state grant game was Summit Hill and Lansford which happens to be where he lives. Don't misunderstand me Keith McCall is a first rate person.

Is your brother still in EMS and living in PA? I agree with you that the fire service should be fully funded but it's not. The only reason I do this and believe me I'm up to my @ in it is because my parents passed on the special gene which has no cure except to be in it. In the last 5 years alone I have put in over 800 hours of state fire school and a greater amount of training at the local level. Plus actual calls and fund raising. I hold certs in just about everything. I'm an officer and my wife is a executive officer, my kids are in the service as were my father and grandfather. There are about .05 fire and EMS volunteers per 100 persons living in the county.