The Times series: "911: What’s Your Emergency?" was interesting. However, the "7-minute average response time" that seemed to permeate the various segments of the story means little if one lives in an area like Cool Springs and Grant Ford and is concerned about fire and EMS response.

Fire and EMS records will show that under optimum conditions, it takes 15 minutes to respond from the nearest fire station to my residence. (To the people tucked back in the Grant Ford or Waterside Subdivisions, time your drive to the nearest fire station).

Former commissioner Roger Cole has said funds and a commitment for a fire station in our area was in the budget when he left office in 2003. West Hall resident Terry Kuehn, a former firefighter, has been active in attempting to secure a fire station in this area since 2005 and rightly places public safety ahead of parks and recreation.

As a public safety officer for over 30 years, I have enough knowledge to know that in Hall County we have some of Georgia’s best personnel serving as sheriff and fire chief through the chain of command to rookie officers. What we apparently lack, however, is the political leadership to place public safety for all as the first priority of the Hall County government.

The silence from the county commissioners on this issue in The Times’ series was deafening.