To the editor:

Anthony Axman wrote an excellent letter to Tribune in Sunday’s paper. He seems surprised that the City Council is wobbling on the benefit package for first responders. They have proven over and over that they do not give a hoot what the citizens want. 

If my short-term memory serves me right, we voted on turf for the Sports Complex. It was voted down but we got the turf anyway. We voted on a maintenance facility for their lavish buses. It was voted down; they purchased property for it anyway. 

Wake up people. Your local politicians are not representing the citizens; they are representing their own self interests. It is time that we the citizens held their feet to the fire. 

We need to go back over the last 50 years and count the times when a tax was voted in for a specific purpose then used in a different way. We voted for funding for first responders benefits, now let’s stand up for what we voted for. For one time insist that they do the right thing. Do the job they are getting paid for. 

Give first responders what they deserve. Give them what we voted for. It is time we insist that we get what we voted for or recall the tax. I don’t pretend to know what all the other programs provide but I was led to believe that we were voting a tax to pay for KPERS for our people. 

Now let’s get what we voted for. They give us their all, now let us give them our best. While politicians sit in a cushy office the first responders are on the front line risking all. Now they need our all.

Bernard Levings

Great Bend