One of our career firefighters, Zygimantas Zalys, died last Thursday from cancer.  There was a fundraising event – a softball tournament about 3 weeks ago where  I met “Z”, his wife and child.  I didn’t know him for long but I am saddened to see him go.  Please pray for Z and his family.  Information on the service is here.

If last summer was the “Manassas Next” summer, this summer has been the summer of public safety.  It has been grueling and is consuming tons of time but I think that we are close to getting a final solution in place.  Fortunately, the problem has never been on the operations side.  If you call 911, qualified people will show up, just like always.

It’s a question of how to proceed from here on out.   It’s a question of how to integrate a newly formed department with a volunteer company that has served our community for over 100 years on the fire side and 50 years on the rescue side.  Working with all of these guys is really humbling.  I had a meeting the other day with Woody Merchant – the first chief of the rescue squad that was formed the year I was born!  These volunteer institutions have long been an important part of our community and I also have great respect for our career staff so it becomes a delicate question of balance.

I’m working hard, right along with the other members of Council and the public safety community to get it right.  We’ll know soon enough if we are more right than wrong….