To The Eagle:

I have blissfully sat by and been an armchair critic too long. As a tax-paying voting citizen of our community, I cannot be indifferent to either the mayor or the volunteer firemen's criticism. One must know that the mayor is essentially a full-time volunteer position receiving a paltry salary of $250 a month to supervise about seven full-time employees.

As a volunteer, I believe the requirements are to serve your community or organization to the best of your ability with no expectation of compensation. One may learn more about the organization or community they are serving and may even gain support and respect from others. Our firemen and our mayor both do this.

The laws in our little town must meet state, federal and local laws. We elect our mayor to be our leader and to oversee the functions of our town, including managing its staff. The staff are not expected to sign legal documents for the town nor to unilaterally make decisions that will dictate how your tax dollars are spent.

The current fracas about the mayor and fire department is about neither. It involves the legal requirements of the town and how it allocates your tax dollars. The audit is an annual occurrence because the State provides part of the community funds and is required by laws that we as citizens make. The Attorney General and the FBI only investigate if there is reason to believe that laws have been broken. The mayor must follow the law as he knows it. If rules are broken, he must try to fix them. I'm confident that the mayor and the fire chief will be able to work together to resolve the issues of the audit report.

I applaud the mayor for his hard work and I also applaud the fire department and their chief. The chief and the mayor both have full-time jobs with essentially no pay. All they can derive is the support and loyalty from those they serve. Let's support them rather than throwing stones.

Read the audit report. It's available to everyone, then make judgments if you must.

Dixie Swart

Cathlamet