Salem firefighters and paramedics want you to know why it is important to VOTE YES on the Public Safety Bond Measure. Our job is to keep you safe and our ability to do that well is becoming more difficult. Endorsed unanimously by City Council, this measure will dramatically improve your safety.

RESPONSE TIME

Scientific research shows that when a person’s breathing or heartbeat has stopped, irreversible brain damage occurs after four to six minutes without resuscitation. Survival rates plummet when response is delayed. The same holds true when your home catches fire. A fire doubles in size every minute. A flashover – the moment at which all the contents of a room ignite – occurs within four minutes after burning begins. To prevent this from happening, quick response time is critical.

The Salem City Council adopted the recognized national standard of a four-minute driving response time to be met by emergency crews 85% of the time. Currently we cannot meet this standard. Fire station relocations and additions are desperately needed to achieve this standard.

EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS

Many of Salem’s existing stations are not built to survive even a modest earthquake. It’s likely that in the event of a quake, stations will collapse, burying both firefighters and the specialized equipment needed to assist you in such an emergency.

Salem firefighters ask you to help us improve your family’s safety as well as ours. Your YES vote on this measure will improve our response time and emergency services delivery.

What will it cost? The bond will cost approximately $6.50 per month (based on a $150,000 home) in the first year and less thereafter. Similar public safety investments have taken place in Portland, Beaverton, and Eugene, as citizens of these communities have recognized the need to upgrade their stations too.

Please join your friends, neighbors, relatives and fellow tax payers – Salem’s firefighters and paramedics – in voting YES ON PUBLIC SAFETY!

Your Salem Fire Fighters & Paramedics

(This information provided by
Salem Fire Fighters & Paramedics)

MEASURE NO. 24-46

Dear Voters:

We support Salem’s proposed Public Safety Bond Measure. We understand the importance of providing firefighters, paramedics, police officers, and 911 dispatchers with the proper equipment and facilities to adequately perform their jobs. A “Yes” vote in favor of the Public Safety Bond Measure will improve fire and ambulance response times by upgrading, relocating and adding additional fire stations to west and east Salem. This measure will also build a new 911 communication and emergency operations center to help serve the community of Salem. These improvements are needed to ensure that our fire stations and communications center can withstand moderate to severe earthquakes. A recent study indicated that most of Salem fire stations would not be functional after an earthquake of any consequence.

The passage of this bond measure would also improve emergency response times. It has been over 25 years since Salem fire station locations were configured. During this time period, Salem has gone from 27.8 square miles to 46.4 square miles without any consideration of its fire station locations.

This measure will also improve communications for firefighters and police officers. Currently, fire fighters and police officers do not have the ability to directly speak to one another at emergency incidents. This puts our public safety officers in greater danger. It also threatens the lives of all of us by increasing the amount of time it takes for our firefighters and police to communicate with one another during an emergency.

At times we all can take for granted the vital and dangerous work that firefighters, paramedics and police officers do to keep our communities safer. A “Yes” vote in favor of the Public Safety Bond Measure will provide the type of public safety environment necessary for a safer Salem.

Join us in supporting the Public Safety Bond Measure by voting Yes for public safety and Yes to a safer Salem.

Sincerely,

John Kitzhaber, M.D. Peter Courtney

Governor of Oregon Oregon State Senator

(This information provided by
John Kitzhaber, M.D., Governor of Oregon
and Peter Courtney, Oregon State Senator)

MEASURE NO. 24-46

To Salem, Oregon Voters:

Who doesn’t feel more secure when public service officials are properly equipped and at-the-ready for whatever emergency may occur?

To assure that Salem continues to be a place where families can safely grow and prosper, it is important that our city’s foundations remain strong. Public Safety is a cornerstone of any community.

Engineering studies have determined that in the event of even a moderate earthquake, Salem’s fire stations and 911 Dispatch Center could be reduced to rubble. The goal of this measure, if passed, is to assure citizens that our fire stations and 911 emergency services will withstand a major earthquake. Should the Salem voters have the vision to pass this measure, it may save your life or that of your child and other loved ones. Make no mistake; our public service people see life and death situations each and every day.

We have the opportunity to pass a measure that will directly affect improved response for everyday emergencies by relocating and earthquake-proofing existing stations and constructing badly needed new stations in west and east Salem.

Communications between fire fighters, police officers and 911 personnel will also be improved by voting YES. Currently, our fire fighters and police officers do not have the sometimes-crucial ability to communicate directly with each other at an emergency scene via radio. Further, there are gaps in our community where radio communication for public safety employees is not possible. This endangers not only those in the public safety sector, but the people of the community who they admirably serve.

Please join me in voting YES for public safety on your mail-in ballot. It’s important.

Gerry Frank

(This information provided by Gerry Frank)