Dan Emplit

I have linked (perhaps permanently) on my “Local Buzz” blogroll to Dan Emplit’s site, WB Fire Fighters Thoughts.

This is from his Blogger profile: A 17 year WBFD Engine 3 Driver. With 6 years Active Military service.

Noble enough.

I link to his site not as some sort of official endorsement of anything he has to say. I link to his site not as any admission on my part that his take on city issues is the take du jour. Rather, I am linking to his site simply because he has chosen to continually raise public safety issues that may or may not directly affect the residents of my city.

And I have decided that anyone who bothers to, 1. attend city council meetings, and 2., write about those experiences, deserves to reach the largest possible Internet audience.

At one time not so long ago, I was in total cahoots with the WBFD whereas political muckraking was concerned. But then, after the new administration took over, and after the 3-men to an apparatus mandate caused a serious riff between the administration and the fire department, I very, very quickly fell out of favor with the “Hose Dudes“ (trademarked?) for daring to side with the administration.

And that’s perfectly fine with me. I have no innate need to be treasured by all that I meet. Jeez, at this late date, I’d be beyond thrilled if my long-lost father was somehow found and begrudgingly admitted that he even remembered having a son back in the black & white day.

But I digress.

Being that City Council, seemingly out of the blue, decided to try to force at-large voting back into the mix, and being that Mayor Tom Leighton can take his 20-year retirement and walk away from the whole shebang relatively soon, I’m suspecting that this city may be fast-approaching a transitional period. A changing of the guard, if you will.

And if that truly turns out to be the case, if Wilkes-Barre is indeed in for a bit of political upheaval, I want every available opinion, good or bad, right or wrong, well-spoken or otherwise thrown into the oft-messy political mix. Enter Dan Emplit.

Do us proud, dude.

Bye