Shorter letters, please

It didn’t take part of seven columns to get J. Buss’s garbled message. And surely the Courier Herald would have been within its legal rights if it had refused to print the libelous statements about President-elect Obama.

It would protect us from such intemperate tirades – and reduce reader suffering – if the editor limited “Letters to the Editor” to 300 words or less.

R. June Thornton

Enumclaw

Fire district could save both time and money

In response to “Consultants hired in fire chief search” article of Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008, written by Dennis Box.

A job is just a job when there is no upward mobility. When there is upward mobility a job changes to a career. Succession planning is a natural component of any business. It seems that this is not the case with East Pierce Fire and Rescue. There is a perfectly qualified candidate already on staff that is acting as “interim” chief.

John McDonald has been a dedicated member of the East Pierce Fire and Rescue team for many years. He has developed relationships with the East Pierce team as well as many of us in the Bonney Lake community. When the Fire District No. 22 board voted to hire a consulting firm to search for a new East Pierce fire chief, they sent a message to all employees of East Pierce Fire and Rescue that they have a job and not a career. The possibility of upward mobility is a great motivator to keep qualified people on board.

We do not need a consulting firm based in Oregon to spend $10,000 of our tax dollars to search for someone we already have. John McDonald is the logical choice for our next fire chief. The loss of Dan Packer shows the lengths to which these professionals will go to protect us. Please fire this consulting firm before they get too deep into the process. Promote John McDonald to chief.

Jim Hildebrand

Bonney Lake