Retiring firefighter snubbed by Hubbard elected officials

Retiring firefighter snubbed by Hubbard elected officials

EDITOR:

Recently we had the honor and privilege of attending a dinner given by the Hubbard Volunteer Fire Department to recognize a member of their team retiring after 31 years and 10 months of service: John Bulmer, assistant fire chief. John spent those 31 plus years in total and complete dedication to the Hubbard community (city and township). These men volunteer their fire fighting and emergency services 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and are still mandated to complete the same regulatory training as full-time paid firemen in other communities. This meant time away from their families and at times their jobs for the training and the fires and emergency calls.

John Bulmer earned his progression through the ranks. He served on the Hazardous Materials Team for Trumbull County at the same time.

This community can be immensely proud of every member of their fire department. They give up their sleep, family functions, dinners, holidays, to respond to the “tones” of the fire call — keeping the community safe.

This dinner/reception was by invitation to all the Hubbard city and township officials, politicians and trustees. Invited also were current and retired Hubbard firefighters, his family and close friends. The expression “actions speak louder than words” was never more clear when not one representative from the city or township came to the dinner. A thank you or a pat on the back was not what this man nor any of the firefighters ever expect — but the respect and acknowledgment of his dedication to the community was blatantly ignored.

Yet we are 100 percent positive that that night as the dinner progressed if any of those officials, politicians or trustees had a fire, leaking fumes, a car roll-over, etc., their fire department would have responded in minutes.

Shame on them.

ILLONA A. BULMER

Hubbard

JENNIFER and JOHN KERNS

Dublin

X Illona Bulmer is wife of the retired assistant chief; Jennifer Kerns is his stepdaughter and John is her husband.

Don’t worry; just spend

EDITOR:

Yes indeed, we Americans need to spend more. We don’t have enough stuff. Not spending beyond our means would be amoral, maybe anti-American. Right?

So, our all-knowing leaders (followers?) could tweak this latest “stimulus plan.” They could declare a permanent tax holiday, force oil companies to immediately slash their profit margins by 75 percent, break up the insurance-pharmaceutical-medical alliance, and/or simply drop trillions of dollars from the sky.

Why save? It’s only paper money ... printed in volumes that may or may not be counted by anyone now, backed by a giant IOU, which is backed by nothing.

Big Brother will rescue US. We’re entitled to it. We’re Americans. We’re entitled to everything. Want to own a big home? Here’s some easy money. Better yet, here’s some free money. (You might want to sign today — before your Economics 101 class, or before the government and Wall Street wake up and punish us.)

Yes, America, by all means, spend, spend, spend. Consumer spending currently accounts for roughly 72 percent of our GDP. Why not raise that figure to 90 percent or more? Other than weapons and burgers and fries, why should we really manufacture and invest in anything?

JEFF TAMARKIN

Liberty Township