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Hey Richard,

It’s amazing to me how much you still have to learn after all the council meetings you’ve attended. Haven’t you been listening?

The Safer Grant you are referring to is used to hire additional firemen so their overtime can be reduced. The last 3 fire chiefs namely Chartier, Sullivan and Armstrong have said for years let us hire more firemen and our overtime costs will go down. The reverse has happened. Fire Dept overtime goes up every year into the millions of dollars. At budget time the fire dept comes in with the same excuses of why their overtime keeps going up and your friends on the council aka Vella-Wilkinson and Travis say nothing. Usler doesn’t know what page she is on so you can’t expect anything from her and Ladoseur is saving his budget cutting to take on the public regarding damage to their cars because of potholes.

Fire Dept. overtime is caused by the minimum manning provision in their contract that you haven’t told us Richard what you intend to do about it. The Safer Grant is only good for a couple of years so tell us Richard what you are going to do about the structural deficit is the fire dept. Will you be doing what Fall River did when their Safer Grant expired i.e. lay off firefighters?

I’m glad the firefighters want transparency so why don’t you visit with senior citizens and let them know even though they aren’t getting a COLA raise in social security this year, the retired firemen will get a 3% COLA increase in their retirement checks. Also, let the seniors know as they struggle to pay their health care bills, retired fireman and their spouse pay nothing for their healthcare.

I hope Richard you start doing your homework before you compose another letter.