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2796 T~Is~s. Herbert Horton I feel it's far more important to prevent serious fires and 1l~68 W. California serious hazards than it is to get insurance for what we've lost and I'd lilte to suggest that you add X8500 to your budget this year and provide radios for your present system. Councilman Black There seems to be an automatic feeling that our fire rates are going to go up right away. I don't think it's -true. I've talked to people over at the rating Bureau and they tell me that the change from paid men to Volunteer does not auto- matically raise the rating, does not automatically change the rating. They say there are other factors, quality of equipment, type of equipment, quality and quantity of water system, type of community, whether not we have a lot of fire hazards in the community, a lot of businesses tha•tproduce unusual fire perils, perhaps businesses such as warehouses, paper manufacturing, or businesses that use a lot of oil that are real fire hazards. Now those are things that have a real impact on fire rating. There is nobody at the Fire Underwriters Inspec- tion Bureau that will make a statement that you rates are automatically going to go up. In fact they make the contrary statement. Changing from some paid men to volunteers does not automatically make the rates go up and I've talked to them myself. I am satisfied in my own mind if we stayed just the way we are, our rates are going to go up because (1) we don't offer enough inducement to our volunteers. We are in a position to offer much better inducement to volunteers. (2) Money and taxes are important and we represent all the people in the Village and at•~y mention of half a mi1~. is ridiculous. A half mill won't take care of arty substantial changes. B.oy Garcia I came here as an observer. Trlhat were doing here is sub- Falcon ti~Joods jetting our elected representatives, the people we've chosen to run this Village and ask them to initiate programs for us which we think are progress and whi dz will give us better service while considering cost at the saxe':time. You have to take some risks with change. No one can assess those risks at this time. According to P1Ir. Ecklund's report, there are 100,000 people living in 7 Villages, all but one operating with full volunteer force. One of them., Maplewood has one full-time Fire Marshall. It seems to me these communities have the citizenry at heart and most have more money than Falcon Heights. ti~Je're fortunate in one respect that we're a small village geographically. Mayor Warkentien Taxes are the basis of every political campaign in the state of ~tinnesota, whether it's a sales tax, higher income tax, school taxes or some other form of taxes. 1~Je are charged with the responsibility of keeping taxes down. ti^7e think we're wisely spending the tax dollar when and if we adopt the proposed change to a full Volunteer Fire Department. This is a practical budget matter. William Brown If I were a member of the Council I would ask only that each 1808 Asbury citizen give proper weight to all the factors involved. I think there are basically three of them. Protection, economics, and the personal element. The personal element is a tough one and I am in sympathy with that. As far as economics, that data presented speaks for itself and as for protection, I feel that Mr. Garcia has spoken well in favor of that.