Dear Editor,
I am writing this letter on behalf of the Worden Fire Dept. Volunteer depts. are vital to small communities like ours. They provide emergency services that most take for granted and hopefully will never need.
WFD is made up of amazing men and women who give of their time, lives to make it happen for YOU. We provide Structure, wildland fire protection and EMS services for the HUNTLEY PROJECT. As with all volunteer organizations, it is getting harder and harder to get people involved and committed to giving their time. This is very evident of the EMS side, while we have people that give huge amounts of their lives to help, we find ourselves running short of people to help. That puts a huge load on those that are trying. Many must take time off from work and either give up pay or use vacation time. A simple run into Billings eats up two 2 hours easy; do this 2-3 times a week and it adds up fast.
Currently we have contracts with HP FSA and a Fire District which is made up of the town of Worden. Neither one of these have had a price increase in over 30 years and do not provide enough income to support the dept. on their own. Go back 30 years and a gallon of gas was considerably cheaper. We are currently working on raising the rates of the FSA to help support what is needed and trying to be fair across the board. Currently the FSA charges a flat rate of $50 regardless of size and price of home. It doesn’t matter if you live in a small farmhouse or an 800k dollar home, you get charged the same. This issue requires us to have to raise rates to get caught up with today’s prices and issues.
Our failure and weak link is during the day between 7am and 6 pm weekdays. Almost all of us work in Billings and are not able to respond in a timely manner. We are looking at creating a full-time position for an EMT/ FF during this time. This will help with missed calls and relying on AMR (out of Billings) and our neighbors for help and putting unnecessary burdens on them. Please stay tuned more info on this project.
If you are interested in joining the dept. either EMS, FIRE or both, please contact us at 406-967-2111 or show up on a MONDAY evening around 7 and meet the men and women that serve you.
Remember it is our community, what WE make of it is up to US!
Lance Taylor
Worden, MT
