WHAT TEAM "YOUR MAJESTY"??

This was given to me by a concerned citizen of this town, who has firefighters/first responders for neighbors, and are fed up with the lies they are being told. Don't know who the person was, but they handed this to me at church this AM, and after reading this I had to share.

We as a group of Bensalem firefighters opened our political mail today and read the letter from our Mayor. He wants us to support his "team". In the letter, he claims many wonderful things that he and his "team" have done. As members of the fire service in Bensalem and supposed to be members of his "team" we would like to address a few of these wonderful things and add a few of our own.

1. The state of the art fire training center. It is anything but a state of the art training center. If the members of the Mayor's "team" continue to tell him it is state of the art, they are making him look like a fool. The new training center built for the fire service in Bristol Township IS a state of the art training center. This facility was built at no cost to Bensalem. Yet, the members of the Mayor's "team" insisted that they had to have their own. At a cost of over $5,000,000.00 and very limited capabilities, it was only built to satisfy a member of the Mayor's "team" that not part of the County fire training center committee. Anyone that wants to know the truth just needs to go to both facilities and compare. We would love for someone on the Mayor's "team" to explain this mess. No classroom, no bathrooms and no fire suppression training capabilities! Is anyone on the "team" going to be held accountable for this mess? We were told by representatives of the township Fire Marshal's office NOT TO ATTEND the dedication of the new fire training center in Bristol! Why? If we don't see it, you won't have to answer any questions! Well, we are going. Then, we will be coming to the "team" to get answers.

2. Taxes. School taxes continue to rise. Water and sewer (which use to be included in our tax bill) continue to rise. When we spoke with employees of Aqua Water they explained that our water system was not properly maintained resulting in extensive repair and improvement work. Didn't members of the "team" run our water and sewer department?

3. Reduced funding for the fire service. With no plan, no explanation and repeated violations of township ordinances, a paid fire service was established. The "team" never told the fire service that money was going to be taken from the volunteer fire companies that are STILL required to provide the same services that they did prior to the paid fire department (an independent fire department not part of the volunteer system in the township) coming into existence. The councilmen that are part of the "team" stated that they did not know they township would reduce the funding for the volunteer fire companies. They also did not know that the township would disregard township ordinances to create the paid fire service. The councilmen who are part of the "team" have no idea how they are going to pay for the new fire company! Don't believe us? Ask them for the funding plan for the paid fire company when and if they have another council meeting!

4. The township is facing yet another deficit this year. The members of the "team" told the public that they would tell the public about the deficit when they felt the public needed to know!

5. We have read and re-read the "Fire Service Assessment for Bensalem Township". Are you kidding? They paid for this?! It is obvious, the only thing the survey reports is that they wanted to take away our funding! It also stated that there was no flooding problem along State Road! Maybe there is another Bensalem that they did the study for.

(See Bucks County Courier times article of 12/19/2010).
(See http://library.municode.com/..HTML/13184/level2/..PTIADLE_CH6FICO.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/..45004811/ns/..local_news-delaware_valley_pa_n..j/t/..finest-burn-building-commonweal..th/

We have been lied to by members of the "team". Several of the councilmen that are running for election have told the fire service in Bensalem repeatedly that they are not told about things to do with the fire service, budget and actions taken by the Director of Public Safety! Well, what do they tell you and more importantly, why haven't you been asking? Mr. Mayor, we are aware that you spoke to county officials about the training center built in Bristol BEFORE you built the one on Street Road. Your "team" lied to you and cost the township and the fire service millions of dollars. Dollars that could have been spent supporting the volunteer and paid fire service in Bensalem!

We have learned that ALL the allegations made against the Union Fire Company and its former Chief is false! This was admitted to by the Director of Public Safety! The Director of Public Safety told members of the community that he was willing to write a letter clearing the Union Fire Company and its former Chief if it didn't make the township look bad. There has been no letter as of yet. I guess there is no way of clearing the fire company and its former chief without the township looking bad! Will the councilmen who are running for office publicly state that they will look into this matter? Has anyone from the council looked at the SAFER grant? There are a lot of questions. I guess the "team" is handling this the way they handle everything else…THEY DON'T TELL US ANYTHING! Councilmen, who are "they" that keep vital information from you?

There is much more to follow…

HOWEVER, DESPITE THE TRUTH, PEOPLE STILL ELECTED THE VERY INDIVIDUALS WHO GOT US INTO THIS MESS!! NOW IN 2013, WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO RIGHT THIS WRONG, AND MAKE SURE THAT HONEST GOVERNMENT PREVAILS. I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE EVERYONE WHO IS DISSATISFIED WITH THE CORRUPTION IN THIS TOWN, TO COME OUT TO NEXT B.D.O. MEETING ON FEBRUARY 20TH. COME OUT AND HAVE YOUR VOICES HEARD, BUT MOST OF ALL COME OUT AND HELP MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF YOU WANT OT SEE THIS GOVERNMENT CHANGED, THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! HOW ABOUT RUNNING FOR OFFICE.I HAVE HEARD FROM A GREAT MANY OF YOU HOW THE B.D.O. HA BEEN SENDING OUT "WEAK" CANDIDATES TO RUN AGAINST THE ALL POWERFUL GOP, SO IF THIS IS THE CASE, WHY DON'T YOU RUN FOR A PARTICULAR OFFICE?? CONSIDER IT A DARE FROM ME.

ITS TIME TO STEP UP!!