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Way of the World
Page 2 Lost Creek Guide October 7, 2020
– Way of the World – Weld County Regional Communications Center Earns Top Honor
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WELD COUNTY, CO — The Weld County Regional Communications Center (WCRCC) by Bob Grand has been recognized as the nation’s best public safety answering point (PSAP) by NICE
Is civility so bad? I put Chris Scalia’s article about the relationship between his dad, Public Safety. The 2020 PSAP’S Finest Award is the second consecutive national recogniSupreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the front page of this tion the WCRCC has earned in as many years from a public safety agency.issue of the Lost Creek Guide. No question those Supreme Court justices were often at “The effort our dispatchers put in every day to serve our residents in their time of need odds on many issues, but they were still friends. We could all learn something from that. is critical,” Weld County Commissioner Chair Mike Freeman said. “This award exempliThe hate for the President is so great among many that it blinds them to the issues. Listening to John Hickenlooper, Cory Gardner’s greatest sin is that he supports the President. Hickenlooper is entitled to his opinion, this is America, but Cory Gardner is one of the hardest bipartisan working United States Senator in Washington. A fact that is not disputed by very many. When we decide who to vote for, we should be looking at the issues and basing our decision on who will best represent us, all of us, with the hope that things will get accomplished. Emotions are running high this election, especially those who are beginning to realize that the President might in fact be reelected. My Trump sign mysterifies our county’s commitment to providing the quickest and best emergency response possible, and we couldn’t be prouder of our public safety communications personnel.” PSAP’s Finest Awards are given to nominees based on their accomplishously disappeared last night, but that will not stop me from voting. ments, skills and dedication to public
I have a couple of grandkids at the 3 to 5-year-old range and two daughters who have safety. Award winners are selected by been working at the at the home teacher role. Listening to them it is clear that remote a panel of judges consisting of public learning is not the ultimate solution. It was/is a stopgap measure. Children need the in- safety professionals from throughout the terface with their peers. That is an important part of their education. I understand the country. concept of concern about COVID 19, but I also understand the need to educate our chil- According to Mike Wallace, WCRCC dren. Our educators need best address that and worry less about the political aspects of Director, several accomplishments in the past year were mentioned in the nomination COVID 19. Many of our teachers are not thinking that way but I believe that many of the for the award including staff’s assistance in saving six lives, the delivery of one new baby teacher union leadership groups have focused this as an opportunity to poke a stick at the and exceeding professional standards in coordinating emergency response to two officerPresident. Be careful that you have not successfully poked a stick in the eyes of many of the involved shootings. Training and quality improvement, the ability to handle increased call soccer moms you are trying to influence. volume, improved response times and reaccreditation in 2019 by the by the International
The difficulties caused by COVID 19 will have long term impact on the hospitality and Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED) as an Accredited Center of Excellence (ACE) transportation industries. Conservatively, this will be a several year recoveries for those also made the WCRCC stand out. industries. The government needs to address that in a sensible way to help people tran- “2020 has been challenging on everyone for many different reasons,” Wallace said. “For sition through this time. At the same time, you have to be aware that COVID 19 has al- our staff to not only meet expectations but exceed them and earn this award speaks to ready cost the government more than all the expenses of World War II. The impact on the dedication we have as a team to continually improve in emergency response. We are the revenue streams to our major cities is going to be horrific and they have not begun to honored to be recognized.”figure out what to do about it. Expecting the federal government and ultimately the rest The WCRCC will be honored virtually on NICE’s Facebook Page at a later date. More of Americans to bail them out is not realistic. This is going to be painful as jobs are go- information about Weld County Public Safety Communications can be found by visiting, ing to disappear. Not just a week or two furlough, the jobs will disappear. Union pension obligations, dependent on ongoing cash flow from city/state revenues that were at a much https://www.weldgov.com/departments/public_safety_communications. higher level, will default. Nobody seems to be talking about this ugly issue. An even more concerning issue for all if us is the level of federal debt already incurred and about to be increased further by another stimulus program. How are we going to repay this, and probably not we but our kids, their kids, and their kids. Actions have consequences. Justice Ginsberg Cont. from Page 1 Judge Jeffrey Sutton, one of my father’s former clerks, tells a story about visiting my father at the Supreme Court on what happened to be Justice Ginsburg’s birthday. My dad
It is kind of like forest fires. We do not have effective forest management programs in had bought his old friend two dozen roses for the occasion, and Judge Sutton started teasplace. Things like clearing brush and road cutting to provide fire breaks etc. It might put ing him, joking that there was no point to a gift like that when Justice Ginsburg had never a whole bunch of people to work. More importantly all our insurance rates would not go sided with him in an important 5-4 case. up to pay for all the homes lost to the fires. In Colorado how many millions of dollars have My father replied, “Some things are more important than votes.” been spent fighting the fires, not counting insurance losses, that could have been spent The point of this story isn’t that my father or Justice Ginsburg changed their votes to more productively? please the other, or that they pulled any punches when writing differing opinions – in-
When will we learn? I look forward to the election ending, hopefully that will allow us deed, they are both known for their strong dissents. The point is that they didn’t let those to focus on what we need to do and get over the politics of hate. We have some real issues differing and deeply held convictions undermine their dear friendship. to deal with. This has already been one of the most difficult and divisive years in living memory; with
Speaking of real issues one of favorites is RTD. We now see that RTD is laying off more Justice Ginsburg’s passing, it will become more so. people and cutting service. When will somebody ask if it would not be more cost effective Reasonable people of good faith will disagree about important issues. You and your to shut down RTD and give free transportation vouchers to people to use one of the rider friends will likely hold very strong, very different opinions about what course our country providers services? But that might be a commonsense approach and we cannot do that. should take and who should lead us there.
Please, whatever your party affiliation or non-affiliation, vote in this election. It is im- A healthy republic requires citizens to debate those issues forcefully and peacefully; portant. As always, your comments and thoughts are appreciated: publisher@lostcreekguide. com a healthy society needs citizens to remember that political disagreement need not turn friends into enemies. My father and Justice Ginsburg mastered this balance. We’ll all need to do the same in the difficult months before us. It is appropriate to give the last words over to my father, words that he delivered to celebrate Justice Ginsburg’s tenth anniversary on the D.C. Circuit many years ago. My father was on the Supreme Court by then; she wasn’t yet, so he ended his roast with some sincere thoughts about their time working together. I imagine that what Dad said then is close to what he’d say today, were he here to mourn her passing: “She was the best of colleagues, as she is the best of friends. I miss her.”
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