While it is no news that times are tough — not just in Ellenville and Wawarsing but all over the country — it's times like these that require us to ask "where do we go from here?" With taxes going up and massive job losses putting a heavy burden on our community, there is so much fear about every dollar that even the institution that seemed unimpeachable, the volunteer fire department, is looked at with suspicion.

Tuesday's vote sent a clear message from a number of local taxpayers to taxing bodies of every stripe — village, town, school, fire district — to curb spending. Or, if you have to spend, you better justify the project and be ready to answer all of their questions. If an organization whose sole purpose is to rescue the lives of their neighbors cannot be given the benefit of the doubt as to their intentions, it is obvious that no level of government is safe in pushing for large capital projects.

This area can't afford the blind idealism of buying something with today's promises and tomorrow's dollars. Today's economic conditions, both local and national, trump those kinds of plans as more and more citizens are having to tighten their own belts.

If the Ellenville Fire District is set on getting its central firehouse it must prove to voters why this must happen and how they plan for paying for it. Will they put their current firehouses up for sale? If and when they sell their firehouses, will they donate some of that money to the building and remodeling costs? If so, how much? A quarter? A half? All of it?

Some firemen have warned of the possibility that local fire companies could move from volunteer to paid status. Is this a threat? The implication seems to be that if the community doesn't support this consolidation move then the area could lose its firemen, forcing them it to have paid fire companies…and then they (the residents) would be sorry. Is that any way to court a prospective voter?

Without question, the work that all of our fire companies perform is dangerous and they do it well, coming to our aid when we are most in need. But this is not about that. This not about heroism needing to be rewarded or remembered. This is nothing as poetic as that. Tuesday was about numbers. Numbers that didn't' inspire the public but made it anxious about the cost of a project it still doesn't understand.

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