Why the ugly trailer?

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To the Editor:

This letter was written to the Oak Bluffs selectmen.

I have just returned to the Island, and I am getting caught up on back newspapers.

In the August 30 issue of The Times, you said that the trailer parked at the OB Fire Station is a requirement of state regulations. What you neglected to say to the taxpayers is that men and women doing overnight shifts cannot sleep in the same room.

That reasoning, we could understand. I do not understand why we have to look at that ugly trailer next to our beautiful fire station.

If any thought had gone into it, you could have easily insulated the room upstairs and put in electric heat. If it was good enough for other fire personnel to use that room for living quarters, why should it not be used for the EMTs. Bathrooms and showers have been supplied for both, that is not in question. The only problem is when the men use the ladies room, and that situation has never been addressed. Right now, all we have is just more unneeded expense to the fire department.

Also some years back, a blueprint surfaced of the future O.B. fire station. That blueprint consisted of a new fire station with living quarters upstairs for a full-time fire department and not volunteers. Come on, people, remember when Chief Peter Forend tried to get us to give him full-time pay at town meeting? This is all part of the underhanded process with our selectmen. Why would we need to pay someone full-time, especially one that is never around anyhow? Glad he is on his way out.

Is this trailer just the beginning of what you are going to try to do in jamming this new fire station down our throats?

Rita Stellins

Vineyard Haven