Letter to the Editor: Guimond Protects Tax Dollars

I would like to address the letter written by Steven Siler to the Islands Sounder, in which he railed against Pierrette Guimond for her “complaints” against the Orcas Fire Department.

While I appreciate and echo Mr. Siler’s admiration for our largely-volunteer department, I am disappointed that he is unaware of the tireless efforts of Ms.Guimond, who is also a volunteer, and quite an extraordinary one.

Pierrette has given countless hours toward our community’s gardens, our public and school libraries (she was a Library Board member for four years), our cemetery district, noxious weed removal, and many other community projects.  Twice the citizens of Orcas have elected Pierrette to be Cemetery District Commissioner.  Pierrette was a Fire Department volunteer for five years, handling the landscaping and watering at the Department.

She has also been a rescue volunteer.  Several years ago, she found a man with Alzheimer’s who had been missing in the woods on Orcas for four days, and just last year she revived a heart attack victim at a party she was attending.

I commend Pierrette’s requests for accountability from the Fire Department, the Public Library, and any other public institution on the island.  That she is willing to devote immense time and effort to ensuring that our tax dollars are spent in the most responsible and appropriate fashion is of great comfort to me.

As a busy working parent, I appreciate that Pierrette volunteers her time when I cannot.  Her questioning of the department’s expenditures does not mean she is denigrating the efforts of the volunteers that populate it.  Pierrette does not operate from a sense of entitlement.

Rather, she is motivated by the desire to protect the taxpayer from districts’ overspending and mismanagement of public funds.

Please check your facts before you publicly attack someone about which you know very little, in a community with which you are just becoming familiar.

Sincerely,
Ann Lister