Referendum gives fire district autonomy

I was rather disappointed to read in your March 18 editorial that the Herald was against the referendum to determine if district trustees should be elected rather than appointed.

One of the issues is consolidation of fire departments, which is one of Mr. Cronin's agenda points. In Warrenville, our pension system is sound and the district is not in debt. The same cannot be said about some of our neighbors.

We do not want to see Warrenville tax dollars bailing out other districts. If bigger is better, Chicago would have money to burn.

We did a study on joining services with other departments (the Alliance) but due to geography and other issues, it didn't work well for us.

Mr. Cronin also found fault with our ethics policy. While it mirrors the DuPage County's, Warrenville did not sign an intergovernmental agreement with DuPage, because the county wants $180 per hour to investigate any alleged discrepancies.

Would you open your checkbook to the county? I don't think so. In my 18 years as an appointed trustee, I have only spoken with Mr. Cronin once. He has never been to any of our meetings and I doubt if he knows where the fire house is. Or Warrenville for that matter.

William Mennell, President, Board of Trustees

Warrenville Fire Protection District