Fire department will stay in place

Hemet has decided to keep its fire department.

By a 3-0 vote, the city council Tuesday agreed to leave the department in place rather than contract with fire and paramedic service.

The vote, which came after a five-minute discussion, was not a surprise. All three council members present – Mayor Linda Krupa, Councilwoman Bonnie Wright and new Councilman K. Paul Raver, who joined the council Tuesday – had pledged publicly to keep the 106-year-old department in place.

Still, the decision was met with enthusiastic cheers and applause from the overflow crowd at Hemet City Hall.

“I think we’re all relieved it’s over,” said Krupa, who was sworn in as mayor during Tuesday’s meeting. “I just hope that we can move on from something that became a very emotional issue for a lot of people.”

The city proposed contracting with the county to cut costs, but the three council members believed the potential savings weren’t worth getting rid of the fire department, which is two years older than the city.

“We’re an old city, an isolated city and we’re independent,” Krupa said. “People didn’t want to give that up, and I think that’s why it became so emotional. But the council made a business decision. We wanted to keep control of the purse strings. Why would we want to give up that control?”

The department will start looking to fill several positions in the department, starting with fire chief, said Steve Sandefer, president of the Hemet Firefighters Association and a 21-year member of the department.

“I’m delighted,” Sandefer said. “The Hemet Fire Department is going to be around for another 100 years.”