After the rhetoric at the last meeting of Summit Hill Borough Council, we wonder if the members of the council realize how much work, training, and commitment goes into being a volunteer firefighter.

There are obviously some members who don't.The borough's newest full-time employee, Ronald Yuricheck, has been a volunteer firefighter for years.The council discussed that since he is now a borough employee, he possibly shouldn't be permitted to respond to all daytime fires.Some members feel he should only answer major fires during the day. Those same councilmen want to come up with a list of rules governing his fire call responses.Hopefully, the council will back off on any such policy. All these would do is serve as a way to intimidate and potentially harass the worker.The council should be proud to have someone qualified like Yuricheck to respond to fire emergencies during daytime hours. Fire departments throughout the country find themselves short-handed with volunteers due to work schedules, the long training hours, and even the unavailability of finding people willing to perform such tasks.Summit Hill doesn't have a lot of daytime fires. If a blaze does occur, shouldn't the borough do all it can to protect the citizenry and property?How would Yuricheck know if a fire is major or not unless he responds? Isn't it better that he helps to extinguish minor fires so they don't become conflagrations?A council member would like to specify that if Yuricheck answers a fire alarm, that he not be permitted to participate in several hours of cleanup detail afterward. Cleanup is essential for firefighting. Would this be fair to the other volunteers?In no way should Yuricheck be docked pay for any fire responses. There are numerous employers who let their workers leave work to fight fires. Yuricheck's former employer was one of them.The dialogue over Yuricheck's status as a daytime firefighter is nothing less than ridiculous. Obviously, if a major fire occurs during a snowstorm, the worker's first priority might be to plow a path to the emergency scene.Admittedly, there could potentially be a problem with work activities someday in the future.Until such situations occur, don't stymie a valuable asset the borough presently has.By Ron Gowerrgower@tnonline.com