Letter to the Editor 10-2-16

Part I

Joe, Speaking of the corruption in the City of Salisbury. Here is something else the taxpayers should be aware of. 

Did you know that Wicomico 911 no longer dispatches the volunteers at Stations 16, 2 and 1. The volunteers at Station 1 and 2 are supposed to be dispatched nights and weekends when the paid duty crew isn't on duty Monday through Friday. They are not getting dispatched unless there is a second call. Not enough incentive to keep the volunteers around. 

This is the plan Rick Hoppes and Jake Day have been working on to get rid of the volunteers. Rick Hoppes made it a mission the day he got appointed fire chief to push out the volunteers and replace them with paid firemen, but at an expense to the tax payers. That is why they hired those 12 firemen on that Federal 2 year grant. That is why Jim Ireton and Jake Day are fighting the County with the "Nuclear Option" because they want the money from the County to pay for those 12 paid firemen. Now they ended up hiring them, after letting them go, with city and county tax dollars and they want the County to pay even more money to staff the 3 fire stations with more paid firemen full time. Stand by because they are currently looking for a location on North Salisbury Blvd to build another paid fire station up North. It's a fact, look at the Capital Improvement Plan.

This policy is currently in effect and the citizens and visitors are not getting the closest fire station dispatched to their emergency. People are dying because of the long delay waiting for the fire engine from station 16 to respond all the way across town. If you have an emergency on Mt. Hermon Road you are going to die because you have to wait for the fire truck from Station 16 on Cypress Street to respond. They have to respond all the way through town, through bridges and many, many stop lights. You better hope the Rt. 50 bridge is not up. They will not dispatch the volunteers at Station 1 even if they are in the Station or living next door. 

If you have an emergency at Target on North Salisbury Blvd. you are going to die because you will have to wait for the fire engine to come from Station 16 on Cypress Street. They will not dispatch Station 2 even if there are volunteers in the station or living next door. 

Why do you think they built the new fire station on Naylor Street which is much smaller and why do you think they got rid of Squad 2 and Air Light 2? They are creating a small paid fire station. The plans are to send Station 1's air light unit to Station 16 so the volunteers at #1 won't use it. 

Part II

Rick Hoppes recently gave a volunteer firefighter from Station 1 a 90-day suspension for..... Guess what? You will never believe this? They gave an active volunteer firefighter a 90-day suspension just for talking to Bob Culver, the Wicomico County Executive. Just for expressing his right to freedom of speech! Then the volunteers hired an attorney and they blew Rick Hoppes' decision out of the water and proved Rick Hoppes was wrong and the firefighter was immediately re-instated. Then Rick Hoppes immediately destroyed all copies of the tapes he taped during these meetings. He destroyed all his documentation on this suspension to delete all evidence. He deleted all emails and voicemails. This is the crap that Rick Hoppes, John Tull and Darrin Scott are scheming about every single day that they are in the office.

Did you know that Wannabe Fire Chief Rick Hoppes created another paid Deputy Chief's position for the Salisbury Fire Department. They found money to pay for a new Deputy Fire Chief's position. Hoppes had already gotten Jim Ireton to pay for a new assistant chiefs position and gave it to Darrin Scott. So now we get a new mayor and they create the new deputy chiefs position and gave it to Darrin Scott. Notice I said "gave." There was no testing for this position at all which may not be illegal, but it is unethical. Now there is a Paid fire chief, 2 paid deputy chiefs, 4 paid assistant chiefs, 3 captains, 6 lieutenants and about 15 acting lieutenants. 

Each volunteer station used to have 2 volunteer assistant chiefs, 2 volunteer captains and several lieutenants as needed. There is one volunteer assistant chief at station 1 and one at station 2 and the plan is to force them out any day now. There are hardly and other officers at the other stations because they have been forced out by Rick Hoppes, John Tull and Darrin Scott. These guys, along with the other 4 paid assistant chiefs play a part in this and have regular "chiefs meetings." scheme on getting rid of the volunteers and create more paid positions. The assistant chiefs are spies and they go around to the stations to spy on the volunteers and report back to Rick Hoppes. 

This current system in the Salisbury Fire Department is the worst that it has ever been in the history of the City. Rick Hoppes and Jake Day are the problem. We have tried numerous times to talk to Jake Day as Mayor Day and he gets nasty with us and talks down to us. He supported Rick Hoppes' failed attempt suspend active volunteer firefighters at Station 1. They were going to continue until they successfully removed all the volunteers. 

There is also a directive out to each of the stations denying the volunteers to respond on any calls dispatched to fire calls in their Utility Vehicles if they don't have a driver for the fire engines. This is another way to prevent the volunteers from responding on calls. If there is a house fire and Station 1 has 6 volunteers show up but no engineer/driver for the fire engine they have to stay at the station even though the other 2 stations and a volunteer station from the county is responding with fire engines. Sometimes it only takes one fire engine to put out a house fire so they prevent more/free manpower from responding to the call. 

Part III

The only time the volunteers will be dispatched on nights and weekends to calls in their territory is if Engine 16 from Station 16 is already committed to a call. So now they get the scraps from the paid firemen. Now what volunteer wants to hang around waiting for a call when there rarely will be one for Stations 1 and 2 anyway? That's how they got rid of the volunteers at Station 16. No one wants to hang around and be treated like second class citizens by the paid men.

Keep in mind now you the city and county tax payers are paying for the volunteers to respond to your emergencies and they are playing second fiddle at best. The point is YOU the tax payers are not getting what you are paying for and people are dying we are losing property. It's time to get rid of Rick Hoppes, John Tull, Darrin Scott, Jake Day and Jack Heath. They are the PROBLEM!!

Editor's Note: We have moved this post up since so many have asked us to do so. 
Originally posted 10-2-16 6:38pm