Long meeting tonight

Part of what kept the meeting going so long is that the fire department is planning a training session on December 8th -- a Saturday morning. There is a house in town that is beyond repair (built in 1920 and the last owner did zero maintenance) so the current owner is having the fire department come in and burn it for training. They did this to another property back in May 2009 -- a lot of fun! I'll be there and shoot some photos. This one will be interesting because it's only 30 feet from other buildings so the fire department will have to be very careful -- the other property was by itself in a field. Our water board will be running a line from a nearby hydrant to provide water. One of our board members is also a Volunteer for our local Fire District (Yeah 14!!!) and was telling about another planned fire where the firefighters had done their training, the building was fully involved and the firefighters were hanging out eating pizza and drinking pop. Cars would drive by and yell at them for not "working". Jon said that they just put on stupid grins and waved back. This fire is on the main highway that leads to the Mt. Baker ski area and on Saturday morning, it will be busy. Should be fun to film some of these reactions... The state is now requiring us to test for Radium in our water -- another $95 added to our testing bill. We have not raised rates for more than five years but are pushing up against that limit now -- our annual general meeting is in March and we are trying to see how we can get away without an increase. Just another day in paradise...