Off and running . . . again

Ann has been talking about a cruise trip to Alaska for over a year now.  I've heard cruises are great fun; a relaxing way to vacation and see some areas of the world one might not see otherwise.  It's 15 Jun 2011.  The township troops are cleaning out the fire hydrant across the street,

and the firewood has been stacked. 

We're finally off the see what all the chatter is about. 

There are six of us traveling from Waynesboro PA so we went in together to get a ride to Baltimore Washington International (KBWI).  

Kevin Kline of Phantom Shadow Limo showed up right on time and made the trip uneventful though interesting.  We were able to help along the way by suggesting a route originally offered by Ron Vickroy:  I-270 to 29 to 100 to 295 to 195 to BWI.  This completely eliminates the hassle of using I-695 around Baltimore and frequently has substantially less traffic even at rush hour. 

Kevin is a former Navy ship emergency response guy who served aboard the Eisenhower.  He now does firefighting in the District of Columbia and Shippensburg PA, among other places.  We chatted about firefighting all the way to BWI. 

Kevin was somewhat concerned that there is a trend away from volunteer firefighters.  This is something I had been told last year while starting a financial planning business for police, firefighters, and emergency medical services (EMS) people.  Ray Hinkle, the President of the Myersville MD Fire Department (forgive if I don't have the exact title) made much the same point. 

As I traveled the area between Martinsburg WV, Sykesville MD, Hanover PA and McConnellsburg PA I found an interesting correlation.  The closer one gets to larger cities, the more professional, unionized firefighters dominate the departments.  The further away or more remote the location (eg, Wolfsville MD) the more they are dominated by volunteers. 

There was an interesting dynamic at play.  One fella suggested this was just a societal shift with city folks simply demanding the service with no intention of contributing more than taxes.  This was especially true the closer I got to Baltimore and the District.  I'm not sure how "societal" this might be, but there are plenty of forces at work pushing to such a conclusion. 

Marshall Botkin, a long time volunteer in Frederick, suggested this was the inevitable result of establishing broader and in some cases higher standards for firefighters.  If I recall the conversation correctly, he noted that the list of services provided by fire departments had grown over the years.  It now includes a dizzying array of activities, some only marginally related to firefighting. 

Almost everyone will think to call the fire department to rescue cats from trees -- a function more of who has a tall enough ladder than firefighting.  Well, those calls add up and pretty soon some pretty obscure jobs become fire department jobs.  Some of these new services require formal training and certification, and can take a lot of time and cost a lot of money.  It's one thing for a volunteer willingly run into a burning building, quite another to spend a lot of money and uncompensated time to do so. 

Another sign of this movement to "professionalization" is the separation of EMS within, and in some cases from, Fire Departments.  It seemed the larger the city and more professional the services, the more EMSs separated from fire (though in many cases cohabiting the same or next door facilities).

It's interesting to watch for signs of this sort of balkanization of volunteer from professional services.  There is no doubt one gets a higher quality of specialized service from highly trained professionals.  On the other hand, to the extent one creates barriers to volunteerism, I can't help but think this is not good for society in general, especially if it contributes to citizens merely expecting to pay for services and not be part of the rhythm of civic life.  It costs a lot more to pay for all that stand by labor as well.  This should probably be in the minds of people when they demand more and more services from their cities and local governments. 

We finally arrive at BWI.  Our Delta flights connect through Detroit Metropolitan (KDTW) to Ted Stevens in Anchorage (PANC).  The first is 1:40 flight with not much to report.  The second was scheduled for 7:07, but the crew made up a little time enroute with a small tail wind.  Both aircraft were packed so either there are a lot of people vacationing or Delta is trimming routes to keep occupancy high. 

By the time we arrived in Anchorage at around 2300 local time, many of the Holland American services at the airport were getting close to shutting down.  After getting our bags, we boarded the last bus to our hotels.  Our driver turned out to be a retired Alaska State Trooper.  Retirees seem to be a common in the local bus driving and tourist support business.  He gave us a running dialogue on Anchorage which is the largest city in Alaska.  At around 290,000 people, it's roughly 40% of the state population. 

We passed sections of the airport, he noted how important aviation is to the state.  Alaska has an extraordinarily large number of pilots and planes per capita.  This is critical because there are only a few roads and one rail line in a state more than twice as large as Texas and with an extremely long coastline.  The capital Juneau, for example, is only accessible by sea or plane, and there are large numbers of towns and villages both on the coast and inland whose only practical connection to the outside world is by plane.  Anchorage is home to the largest float plane base in the world.

Our trooper also offered suggestions for places to visit while in Anchorage, but noted that virtually everything one would want to see is right downtown between 2nd and 6th streets. 

  

By the time we got to our hotel, the Holland services were already closed, but registration and the bag drag upstairs to the 14th floor of the Westmark Hotel were easy enough.  Even though it was nearing midnight, the view from there  was spectacular, and bright.  Night was not settling on the city.  Our trooper noted we were already into the midnight sun season, and so we were.  From our balcony you could see the Sen. Ted Stevens Airport where we had arrived off to the right, and the Chugach Mountains to the left.  

That view turned out to be a great way to call it a day.  Traveling companions thought so, too.