Eddie Mathis
City of Mountain Park - Council Candidate
Public Safety
My main reason for running for Mountain Park City Council is that we have a public safety crisis. When I dial 911 for any reason, no matter how trivial, I want the 911 operator to respond with only one answer, "Help is on the way!" There should not be a discussion or confusion about which police or fire department is supposed to respond. Today that is precisely the situation we face.
Solving this problem is not going to be inexpensive. Let me repeat. SOLVING THIS PROBLEM IS NOT GOING TO BE INEXPENSIVE.
So let's examine our options.
Option 1 - The easiest and most effective solution to this problem is negotiating a long-term solution with Roswell to provide 911, Fire, and Police service to the City of Mountain Park, including those Mountain Park homes in Cherokee County. This solution would include dissolving the Mountain Park Volunteer Fire Department and diverting any funds allocated to the MPVFD to fees paid to Roswell. Once this contract is in place, we will have access to the best public safety service we could expect to find in any municipality in America. I have total confidence in the men and women who staff Roswell's public safety services. As I said earlier, it will not be inexpensive, but this is our only immediate solution.
In tandem with these negotiations, our citizens should launch an aggressive campaign to dissolve the Mountain Park City charter. The City of Roswell has to see that the more they charge us for public safety, the more likely we are to dissolve our city charter, requiring them to eventually foot the bill for Mountain Park's long-term infrastructure needs.
Option 2 – Develop the Mountain Park Volunteer Fire Department into a competent functioning service. The current city council is on a track to develop the MPVFD just to a level that will allow us to enter into a mutual aid agreement with Roswell. I disagree with this approach. It will take much too long to get a volunteer fire department to that level of competence. In the meantime, we will have to keep renegotiating inadequate temporary agreements with Roswell. And we will be left with a confused 911 operator who does not know which agency to direct to respond to an emergency call. If we develop our Fire Department, I want to see us develop a full-time Fire Department and staff it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some of these firemen may be volunteers, but I want our Fire Department to be on a par with any other Fire Department in the area. But keep in mind that relying on our own Fire Department still leaves us without police protection.
Although I can't entirely agree with Mountain Park developing a stand-alone Fire Department, there may be ways to rethink this solution to make it work. For example, a Mountain Park Fire Department is not going to be overwhelmed with daily calls. Why can't we double train some of these men to also serve as Police? As city employees, we could also task them with other duties, like making repairs to infrastructure. We will have to think outside the box to make this solution work and be cost-effective.
So what's the solution going to be? The only responsible decision is Option 1. We need an immediate resolution to the public safety issue. Choosing Option 1 will put our primary problem to rest for a while and allow the council to address other concerns without wasting time chasing the fantasy of a competent part-time Volunteer Fire Department.
