If $1 million and eight teachers were to be pulled from the Vashon School District, without due notice to the public — there would be an outcry of rage.

Yet the exact thing is happening to our fire department, and we, the citizens of this island who rely completely upon Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR), have not been given a single say in the process.

Soon the Vashon medics will be absorbed into South King County’s Medic One program. What this means is the loss of approximately $1 million from the VIFR budget — from a fire department that is already struggling financially, and the loss of medics on our island.

While chiefs Lipe and Brown and the commissioners have sworn there would be no interruption in medic service when this happens, we, the public, have yet to see a definitive plan of how our island will continue to receive the same level of medic care that we have so far. We are a rural, isolated island. We do not have the back-up enjoyed by mainland EMS units. We, the citizens of Vashon, have not been privy to this process, which appears to have been driven by our chiefs and fire commissioners and has occurred almost completely behind closed doors.

Medics stand against it, and caution that it could denigrate the care we receive.

Before this loss of our medics and the funding this program additionally provides occurs, we demand the right to have a voice in the process at a public hearing, and a right to hear what the exact plan is that will ensure no denigration in VIFR goods or services — not just vague promises that “nothing will change.”

— Marcia Crews