To the editor:

The sign on that beautiful 10 acre parcel at Bayview pretty much says it all: “Future home of Fire District 3.” It used to sit half a mile away, adjacent to a 20 acre parcel the fire district acquired for $232,000 on Thompson Road in 2008. One has to wonder why it doesn’t sit in front of the new Freeland station (built in 2002), the Langley station (2008) or the Saratoga station (1998).

You get the picture, our fire district likes to acquire land and build stations. Thompson road is sitting vacant because the zoning was not adequate. Bayview has the zoning but the money ran out, followed by a dose of reality on that planned $5 million project.

The fire district has been on a cash roll the last 22 years with yearly revenue showing steady increase from $600,000 in 1990 to $2.3 million in 2012. Curiously, their current levy increase promotes how they haven’t had a levy increase in 23 years. My question would be, why no levy decrease in these flush years?

How many organizations around here (or anywhere) have enjoyed a steady annual increase in revenue of 6 percent per year over such an extended period. Where did the money go? A sizable portion went to real estate development.

A new Langley Station at $1.5 million, a new Freeland Station at $1 million, a new Saratoga station at $349,000, a Thompson road land purchase, a station remodel in Clinton and lastly the Bayview land purchase where a $4 to $6 million training facility was planned. Incidentally, did they really need to spend $25,000 on a name change and $40,000 on a marketing firm to help pass this levy?

The fire district around here is a dedicated and responsible organization of committed paid and volunteer staff, for which we should all be thankful; I am. Unfortunately they appear somewhat grandiose in their spending habits. I’m thinking our community has other needs we read about on these pages that trump this 25 percent levy lift. I’d like to see our fire district sell some of that land, return to their core mission and look for efficiencies therein.

Dean Enell

Langley