Council Meeting

19-Feb. 2012
  The Bogota Borough Council has voted on several items that will effect many of the citizens of the borough directly. One is that the Council voted unanimously to extended the retirement age for the volunteer Firefighter's to 75. This is up from 70. This is a move that the dept. wanted to keep the more experienced personal available for support duty in the Dept. The reasoning is that this will free up the younger members of the dept. to do the more labor intensive part of being  a Firefighter. This also allows to have the years of experience to help guide the newer members of the Dept. This, however, does not solve the problem of a lack of new Volunteers joining the Fire Dept. to help get the Borough safe. The Fire Dept is an ALL VOLUNTEER  dept. that means the men and women who answer the call are not paid a salary. They are the members of your community doing something that is need for all the Borough. This is also true for the Rescue Squad & EMS service. Fundraisers and community events are a helpful way to raise money for the equipment needed, but the lack of manpower to operate this equipment is now is starting to become worrisome to both the Officers of each Dept. as well as to the Elected Officials of Bogota. If anyone thinks they would like to join and be apart of a link to a strong community please go to one of the following :www.bogotafire.org for the Fire Dept. www.bogotarescue.org  to join the rescue squad. Or www.bogotafirstaid.org to join the First-Aid and Emergency squad.
   Another item  was that the council past the moving of the School Board elections to the same time as the General elections in November. This is a move seen to get more people voting in the School Board elections, and for voting on the yearly budget for the schools in Bogota. There is also a mention of how money can be saved in combining these elections, but the bigger concerned is to keep the election of the the School Board members out of the political  process. The people themselves, who make-up the board, obviously will be registered to a certain party, this should not have an influence on running for the board. And with the School Budget being a straight  yes, or no vote  that can easily be left out of politics as usually. The School Board  & Budget votes must be more about the future of the Sons & Daughters of Bogota then who belongs to what party. The easy part was to move the elections to November, now the work begins to see how the School Board elections stay about the students and their education.
  The council also  rescinded the rules on video taping at council meeting. The original law was seen as too restrictive, and a bit out dated with the use of so many wireless devices today. They also consider the right of a private citizen who may not want to be video taped.   The item should be visited again at the next meeting  on 1-March