Letter: Vote Incumbents Back in Toms River Fire Districts 1 & 2

Letter as submitted by Chris Aldrich:

Ronald J. Batesko, John Oeser, Gary Licknack, Jack Duffy, Milan "Spike" Baran, & August "Gus" Forte. These may be just names to you, but these are pioneers in what the Toms River Fire Service has become. There are many more, not slighting anyone, but these were my role models, as a young firefighter.

Being a young firefighter, all of these men were Chiefs. For those of you who don't understand the inner workings of the Fire Service, becoming a Fire Chief is not open to everyone, there are only a select few. Not to bore anyone with long winded details, but a Fire Chief, is only as good as the firefighters he/ she serves. As Chief, you try to take lots of influences, and use them to model yourself & department around. What Toms River's taxpayers have is a legacy of Pioneers to its credit. All of these aforementioned Chiefs helped to shape us to what we are today.

Another pioneer to the fire service was the Bureau of Fire Prevention under the excellent guidance of Chief John Lightbody who has retired, and new Chief Jim Mercready, who ensured that we as Chiefs, had the best possible information at our disposal, at a moment's notice. When I was chief, the town through the shared services of both fire districts, and the council, bought a computer aided dispatch (CAD) system for Police, Fire, & EMS. So as Chief, and my first due engine, had a computer with all of our life safety info, contact numbers, what was in the building, and any hazards. This aided my decision making and didn't allow me to make a bad decision. I could make an educated decision.

The other part of being educated, was the commissioners allowed us as Chiefs, to attend either the International Chiefs Conference, Instructors Conference, or other conferences to bring back knowledge to our respective departments. For 3 years, I sat in hundreds of hours of lecture & hands on training from INTERNATIONALLY respected Chiefs such as Vincent Dunn, John Salka, John Norman, the late Ray Downey, all of the FDNY, Chief Butch Cobb of Jersey City FD, and a gentleman who put firefighting & firefighter customer service on the map, Chief Alan Brunacini of Phoenix. These gentlemen allowed me to bring a great portion of their knowledge to the firefighters of Pleasant Plains.

My point is this, the fire service in Toms River for many years, and still is years ahead of its time, and is still 100 percent volunteer, due to the commitment of the fire commissioners in Toms River. I remember overhearing on a mutual aid call "it's ok the Dover Pro's are here". I thought that was a stigma, however, I soon learned that we were pro's because we had a state of the art training facility in our backyard, we trained often, we trained aggressively. We had officers that learned from conferences different things & styles that taught us to be aggressive in suppression. We worked often with the other departments in Toms River, and with the adaptation of the General Alarm in Toms River, we trained even more. There are departments in this state that wish they could be like us.

All of this training, education, & commitment comes at a price though. The commissioners for years have done their best to control the costs of this operation, however there are costs that the commissioners cannot control, such as hydrants, insurance, apparatus, tools, gear, etc. the average cost of a Class A, stock engine is almost $400,000. The commissioners have been diligent in maintaining the full 20 year life expectancy mandated by NFPA, for an engine, ladder, or rescue. Unfortunately the fire service is a business, and there is a cost to do business, there are some costs that cannot be controlled.

I tell you all this because the challengers in the election have postured and posed the incumbent commissioners as reckless spenders. Knowing the fire service far better than the challengers, I know, and can lay my head on a pillow knowing that the current commissioners in fire district 2 are doing, and have done, everything in their power, to make the residents, taxpayers, & firefighters of District 2 safe. While I am not as familiar with the District 1 budget, I can say that I served 7 years as co-chair of the township fire officers association, and 1 year as chief, with Commissioner Foley, and I can & will vouch for his integrity. I had the distinct pleasure of serving under Chiefs Tom McCann, Rich Heroy, Ken Taylor, & Roger "Joe" Brown, and I can tell you I have fought fire, handled extrications, saved hundreds of lives, and served under them as a low level fire officer, and I can say this with certainty, they don't need your vote, THEY DESERVE YOUR VOTE!

Their challengers Jason Wallace, Don Lombardi, Ray Latshaw, & some of their behind the scenes contributors have taken a smear campaign to the current commissioners, which is far and away the furthest from the truth. For the past couple of days, myself and a few other firefighters begged them to come to an open forum hosted by East Dover Fire Department, to question them on their smears they have posted. None of them showed up. They couldn't argue in an open public forum, with the facts that the Toms River Patch allowed myself & others to post on Pete Sabey's opinion article on supporting Fire District 2 candidates on February 13, 2012.

So please, ignore the innuendo that they have published, see through the fictional smoke they would have you try to believe, and come support Chiefs & Commissioners McCann, Brown, Taylor, Heroy, & Foley. From a past Fire Chief's opinion, they are far and away the best possible candidates for the position, and they are the future pioneers for the legacy that the firefighters of tomorrow will follow, and they are good role models for them to have. Most of you who read this may not know who I am, but I was charged to have your fire safety under my hand, and because of the current commissioners, I was able to do a good job. Please come vote on Saturday February 18, from 2 p.m.-9 p.m. for the current commissioners, they have combined over 100 years of service to Toms River. They are currently active firefighters, who better than to be a commissioner, but someone who knows the system.

Chris Aldrich

Past Chief, Pleasant Plains