As an Auburn resident and business owner, I am very disappointed with the current situation concerning adequate compensation for our police officers and firefighters.

If we have learned anything since Sept. 11, it should be that one of the most precious resources any city possesses is its emergency response personnel.

On a daily basis, they deal with situations that most of us would never want to encounter. They risk their lives to protect ours. They rush head-on into dangers that the rest of us run from. And yet, like the rest of us, they are tax paying citizens with households to maintain and families to raise.

No amount of new architecture is going to mean a thing to this community if strong police and fire departments aren’t in place to protect them. Good morale will only make these departments stronger. I feel that police and fire department salaries are a worthwhile destination for some of the considerable property taxes that I pay.

We will never be able to adequately repay police officers and firefighters for the job they do, but let’s at least make a stab at it by not quibbling with them. Give them the respect and compensation they need and deserve.

Diane Fuller, Auburn

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