The Brown Act issues revolving around Idyllwild Fire’s March 18 visit to the Emergency Command Center in Perris remain critical to your health on the Hill.

I want to keep this issue on the front burner because IFPD seems determined to loosen itself from the county and give its dispatch service to a cheaper provider, eliminating those medically trained dispatchers we now have who could save our lives by phone while we await an ambulance.

It seems that everyone over at IFPD who should be representing you, the taxpayer, are drinking the Kool-aid of employees there who fear a county takeover. If you think they’re looking out for your interests before their own, just note that many of those employees don’t even live within the district but commute from off the Hill.

I’m not criticizing their own medical skills, but I am critical of the fact that the employees at that station seem to have a political grip on the commissioners and committees supposedly representing you.

At least the county is taking an interest in the mess there and considering bringing back American Medical Response to the Pine Cove area instead of continuing its contract with IFPD.

In the Feb. 6 issue of the Town Crier, I urged you to pay attention to this issue. Repeating what I wrote then, IFPD should not risk our lives just to save money.  Let’s all make our voices heard on this matter. Because we are isolated in the backwoods with no hospital, we especially shouldn’t be backward in our approach to emergency medical care.

Becky Clark, Editor