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School buses called to rescue
(by Dave Lange - August 31, 2011)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
School buses called to rescue
A strange thing happened Aug. 18 in Bainbridge Township.
Construction equipment being used on a private roadway in a condominium section of the Tanglewood Lakes subdivision punctured a 4-inch natural-gas main shortly before noon. It was a potentially explosive situation in which gas roared from the hole for about 2 1/2 hours before the gas company was able to shut it off.
Bainbridge Assistant Fire Chief Wayne Burge estimated that the amount of gas which escaped during that time would be enough to serve a typical home's heating needs for 10 years.
"All it takes is a spark to set off an explosion," he said, so Bainbridge police were called to the scene, and emergency personnel initiated an evacuation of the 51 condominium residences. Fortunately, most of the people who live there were out on that workday, but 19 of them were evacuated to Bainbridge Town Hall, where temporary accommodations were provided. Residents could not use their own vehicles to drive elsewhere, because starting them might have sparked a conflagration.
Although the hazardous conditions and evacuation were quite unusual, none of that was particularly strange.
What was strange is that the township did not call upon the little tractor it owns and uses for maintenance during the summer at the township-owned Restland Cemetery, located about a half mile from the accident scene, to conduct the evacuation. Nor did the township send out any firetrucks or ambulances to safely move residents from the area. Nor did the township call upon its fleet of police cruisers for that vital operation.
No, Bainbridge police dispatch contacted the Kenston School District transportation department, which readily answered the call for assistance by providing two school buses and drivers to enter the hazardous situation and transport the residents, some of them elderly, to safety.
What makes this strange is that the elected body responsible for township services, including police and fire protection, has gone out of its way in recent years to corrode relations with the Kenston School District, which is responsible for educating the children of Bainbridge and neighboring Auburn Township.
In December 2006, for example, Bainbridge Trustees Linda White and Jeffrey Markley, who had been elected a year earlier, rescinded a gentlemen's agreement with the school board for use of the aforementioned tractor during the winter months. That agreement had allowed the use of school personnel and fuel to clear snow from the township-owned sidewalk that runs along Snyder Road between the school campus and the Bainbridge Library, in exchange for the township-owned tractor also being used on school grounds. It saved local taxpayers the expense of buying an extra tractor.
In a similar snit two years ago, Trustees White and Matthew J.D. Lynch demonized a community committee for having the audacity to request a township monetary contribution toward a fund-raising campaign to upgrade the aging Kenston stadium. The two trustees lambasted the Kenston school administration, which suggested that the township might have a shared interest in a facility that is used by the wider community.
Mrs. White was tossed out of office by Bainbridge voters later that year. Mr. Lynch is leaving to pursue judicial interests this year. Mr. Markley, who was sympathetic to the stadium effort, was re-elected in 2009.
Regardless of what they may think about calling on school buses for assistance in a township emergency, government collaboration saves money, and it can save lives.
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