inessential by Brent Simmons

The Small Town Volunteer Fire Department

My Mom has the scoop on goings-on in Newfield, a small town in south Jersey where my family comes from, where my Mom lives, where my grandfather was chief of the volunteer fire department.

The city council wanted — for stupid reasons — to shut down the fire department, which had been serving the town for more than 100 years. The council voted to shut it down before changing its mind. Narrowly.

Mom writes:

All I can think about is that this mess marks the passing of the two important groups - those responsible for the original Borough bargain of lower taxes thru volunteerism and the Great Generation that Ever Was. Political/social decision making has passed into the hands of the baby boomers and we are not prioritizing the welfare of the town, state, nation, world above our own petty egos. This is not the legacy past generations wanted us to embrace.