Dear Editor,

In October 2010, Palmerton borough officials were presented with a $906,000 grant. I had always assumed that the grant money was to be used for new advantages with the already existing firemen and fire company in mind. It appears that may not be accurate. When in fact we should be thinking of these brave men who go out in the middle of the night, leaving their families behind and risking their own lives to help those in need.The West End Fire Co. No.2 has been operating as a self sustaining organization, paying for most of their own equipment, uniforms and utilities for over 50 years through self generarted fundraisers. Research shows that costs for new local fire companies being built are upwards of 2 million dollars, but the borough states and quoted, "Certainly the station being built and planned now will be a much larger scale then what's currently there," "It will offer a lot of new features to take advantage of the funding that is available. "I cannot forsee a new building only costing $940,000, offering such great advantages that already do not exist at West End. I forsee that being a tax burden down the road to Palmerton residents. The article in the Times News also quoted that the borough has the "opportunity to use this grant to build a more usable building and council wants to take advantage of that."Certainly a place to store fire trucks is needed, however the already established building in the West End offers a social hall, kitchen, meeting place and also a garage where the fire trucks are already housed. Some of these advantages will not be included in the new builiding, such as a social hall. If the borough of Palmerton was truly concerned about centralization of the fire co and the communitys best interest like they state, then why would would they have closed down the existing fire company on 3rd street or why would they not ask the community their thoughts, rather then making their decisions based on their interests alone.I do hope the borough council meeting on February 23 will show the council the best interests of the community should not be decided without listening to the community and its firefighters.Sincerely,Jennifer BuckPalmerton