Hot on the heels of a Press Release from the City of Dryden assuring citizens that adequate fire protection was in place, an e-mail press release from the Executive of the Dryden Volunteer Fire Fighters says there are no talks taking place.
Late Thursday night, the Fire Fighters announced they were withdrawing their services over a dispute with the City and their lack of confidence in Fire Chief Ryan Murrell. According to the fire fighters, three of their senior members were recently dismissed
Friday morning, the City issued a press release saying other area fire departments would provide service. At the same time, Dryden Fire Fighters operating from Hall 2 in Barclay said they will continue to serve, citing their appreciation of the City keeping the former Barclay Hall open.
Late Friday afternoon, the Dryden Fire Fighter issued additional comments via e-mail to area media. Their reply is quoted below, in its entirety;
“We wish that talks would continue but they have not even begun. No talks or communication is our frustration.
We are just joe average people that try and respond to calls whenever possible to help our community. We are not unionized and feel very much taken advantage of.
The City holds us to their standards but cannot even tell us when we are City employees and when we are just Joe average citizens.
The DFFA made a presentation to council back in December where they indicated they would talk with us about some the frustrations we had. From that point forward, months after the presentation, tensions have escalated again because of no response from Mayor and Council.
The wrongful dismissal was the tipping point for us. Weeks after it happened, having no one to advocate for us, not even being aware that HR was even a resource we have access to, and trying to figure out how a mystical HR process does not involve paper or communication, enough was enough.
As a volunteer this is not our primary job and no one wants to come to work in a toxic environment where this kind of stress is very much preventable.
We thank the outlying departments for their mutual aid support of the community. No one wants to create any unnecessary risk or safely to public safely. I think we are all saddened that it takes something like this to even start a conversation.”
Dryden Volunteer Fire Fighters Association Executive”
