This just ain’t gonna happen…

Consolidation … merger … intergovernmental cooperation … call it what you want sometimes good ideas just ain’t gonna happen. This is one of them.

APPLETON — Even before Len Vander Wyst was hired as Appleton’s next fire chief, Mayor Tim Hanna had hopes of increasing cooperation among Fox Cities fire departments.

But with this week’s hiring of Vander Wyst, a former Appleton firefighter who spearheaded the merger of the Neenah and Menasha fire departments, and served as chief of Neenah-Menasha Fire Rescue for six years, the mayor is dreaming of even bigger things.

“Ultimately what really makes sense down here would be taking the heart of the Fox Cities and making it a fire district, take it off the tax levy and have it paid for in a way that is more closely related to what its purpose is,” he said.

Appleton …   Menesha… Grand Chute … Neenah … Whoa Nellie!

How many partners you think are going to get involved in this merger?

The larger the number of partners involved in a solution to a problem, the less likely the problem will be solved.

This idea is DOA.

It’s not a bad idea, it’s just DOA.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 4:10 am and is filed under Intergovernmental Relations 101, Local Politics 101, Political Philosophy 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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