Volunteer firefighters not only save lives, protect our property and assist community members in times of distress, but they are forced to spend a good portion of their time raising much-needed funds for their fire departments. All volunteer fire departments are financially strapped and are compelled to use aging equipment, to meet the expense of rising utility costs, and to cope with expensive state mandates. Asking town governments for contributions through tax dollars is not something that fire departments want to do; it is what they must do.

The Chaumont and Three Mile Bay Fire departments asked the town of Lyme to increase funding in next year's budget. No one wants a tax increase, but what are our choices? It could have been quite different if the Lyme Town Board had been really thinking of our community.

When I read the Watertown Daily Times article dated Aug. 3, "Wind Farm a windfall for two towns," I thought, wow, if wind farms can do this for the towns of Harrisburg and Martinsburg, then why not for Lyme? A wind farm could have been good for our town, but the Lyme Town Board had other ideas.

Jeramiah Calhoun

Three Mile Bay

The writer is chief of the Three Mile Bay Fire Co.